Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
985/549-2341/fax 985-549-2061
Date: 3/5/02
Contact: Christina Chapple 25A
Editors: Photos accompanies release
SLU'S EVENSON TO SOLO IN LPO'S FIRST COLUMBIA CONCERT
HAMMOND -- The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will present "Casual Classics,"
the first of three 2002 concerts by the New Orleans-based orchestra at their north shore home,
Southeastern Louisiana University's Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The Friday, March 8 concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m., will feature David Evenson, head
of Southeastern's Department of Music and Dramatic Arts, who will be the piano soloist soloist
in Edvard Grieg's "Piano Concerto in A Minor."
LPO's Timothy Muffitt will also conduct the orchestra in "Valse Triste" by Jean Sibelius,
"Helios" Overture by Carl Nielsen and "Midsommarvaka (Swedish Rhapsody No. 1) by Hugo
Alfv‚n.
Tickets, available at the Columbia box office (985-543-4371) at 220 East Thomas Street,
are $30, orchestra I and loge; $25, orchestra II and balcony I and $20, balcony II. Box office
hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tickets can also be ordered online at ticketweb.com.
A native of Minneapolis, Minn., Evenson, received his bachelor's and master's degrees
from Indiana University where he studied for six years with the late Cuban-American virtuoso
Jorge Bolet. In 1982, he completed his doctoral degree at the University of Arizona as a student
of Ozan Marsh. He also studied at the LE‚cole des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France, and the
Chautauqua Festival Music School in New York.
Evenson joined the Southeastern faculty in 1979 and, in 1992, received the university's
prestigious President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity. He has been chair of the
Department of Music and Dramatic Arts since 1994.
(MORE)
LPO AT THE COLUMBIA Add One
Evenson is featured on a recently released compact disc recording of chamber music for
saxophone and piano with saxophonist Lawrence Gwozdz, with whom he has performed on
Wisconsin Public Radio, Los Angeles Public Radio and Prague Radio. In 2000 MMC
Recordings released a compact disc recording of his Southeastern colleague Stephen Suber's
"Enchantments: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra," with Evenson as piano soloist with the
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist, Evenson has been heard with the Louisiana Philharmonic Chamber
Orchestra, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, the Mississippi Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the
Wellesley Symphony in Boston, and the Baton Rouge Symphony. He has performed chamber
music on a tour of Argentina and Uruguay and in Weill Recital Hall in New York City.
Approaching his third season as music director and conductor of the Baton Rouge
Symphony, Muffitt is considered one of the country's most exciting and insightful young
conductors. He continues to appear with other prominent orchestras around the country and has
worked with artists such as Alicia de Larrocha, Pinchas Zuckerman, Van Cliburn, Lynn Harrell,
and Itzhak Perlman, and composers such as John Cage, Joseph Schwantner, Ellen Taffe Zwilich,
John Harbison, Joan Tower and Bernard Rands.
For his work during the past seven years as artistic director of the LPO's popular Casual
Classics Series, Muffitt was recently awarded a Certificate of Meritorious Service from the
American Federation of Musicians. He is also music director of the Chautauqua Institution's
Music School Festival Orchestra, one of the country's premiere orchestral training ensembles.
Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Muffitt received his conducting training at the Eastman
School of Music where he earned a doctoral degree. His principal conducting teachers have been
David Effron, Walter Hendl and Timothy Russell.
For additional information, call the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts at 985-
549-2333.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp02.html
Photos available at www.selu.edu/columbia/photos.html