Georgia Woodwind Quintet presents "A Southern Wind Serenade"

The Georgia Woodwind Quintet will present “A Southern Wind Serenade” on Thursday, November 8 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.

Tickets for the performance, which is also part of the UGA Spotlight on the Arts festival, are $18/$5 for students and available via the UGA Performing Arts Center box office at 706/542/4400 or online at pac.uga.edu.

The performance, part of the 2012-2013 Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s 2^nd Thursday Scholarship Concert Series, features some of the finest collegiate woodwind teachers in the nation, with faculty from Florida State University joining their University of Georgia counterparts onstage.

“Having ten professors come together from two of the biggest music schools in the southeast for a performance is quite unique,” said Reid Messich, assistant professor of Oboe in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. “I honestly haven’t seen anything quite like this before.”  Messich, soon-to-complete his Doctorate of Musical Arts at FSU, came to UGA in 2010.

Having so many performers together allowed the two groups to tackle an infrequently performed genre: the dectet, compositions written for ten players.

“Doing an all-dectet concert with the FSU faculty is particularly exciting, as the woodwind dectet is a chamber ensemble with a lot of interesting textures,” said Messich.  “We’re doing a version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite that will make audience members hear the composition in an entirely different way."

In addition to Messich, the Georgia Woodwind Quintet features Angela Jones-Reus, flute; Jean Martin-Williams, horn; D. Ray McClellan, clarinet; and Amy Pollard, bassoon. The quintet was founded in 1967 and has remained a UGA faculty ensemble ever since, hosting seven Symposia for New Woodwind Quintet Music over the years.

The Spotlight on the Arts festival is presented by the UGA Arts Council, of which the Hugh Hodgson School of Music is a participating unit. More than 50 events are scheduled during the nine-day festival in November. More details can be found on The Arts at UGA website (arts.uga.edu).

Established in 1980, the 2^nd Thursday Scholarship Series offers showcase performances by UGA students and faculty the second Thursday of each month throughout the academic year. Proceeds from individual ticket sales and season subscriptions allow for year-long academic scholarships and assistantships for students and presents donors the opportunity to sponsor individual students of the music school at several levels of giving. In 2011, the 2^nd Thursday series provided scholarships to 30 students based on faculty recommendations, academic achievement and performance ability.

The next concert in the series will be the UGA Holiday Concerts in Hodgson Concert Hall on November 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. For more information on the 2^nd Thursday Series or the Hodgson School of Music, please visit www.music.uga.edu.