Elizabethtown College News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4/5/07
Contact: Mary Dolheimer, director of marketing and media relations, 717-361-1587, dolheimerm@etown.edu
Elizabethtown College concerts to feature music of Nordic composers, music that celebrates life
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Elizabethtown College’s music program will present concerts featuring the works of prominent composers from the Nordic countries and music that celebrates life and planet Earth. Both are open to the public free of charge and will be performed in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center.
The college’s Orchestra will present “Nordic Reflections” at 3 p.m., April 22. The mysticism and beauty of Nordic countries will be depicted through compositions by Danish composer Carl Nielsen (“Helios Overture”), Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (“Symphony No. 5”), Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson (“Serenade”), and Norway's Edvard Grieg, with his “Piano Concerto,” featuring Kevin Hahn of Monroeville, N.J., a senior music therapy and psychology major.
The Elizabethtown College Symphonic Band will present “Apotheosis of this Earth” at 3 p.m., April 29. Alfred Reed’s “The Hounds of Spring” heralds new life and introduces the music that will journey the perspectives of various composers’ passion for and depiction of life on Earth, including Dana Wilson’s “Shakata: Singing the World into Existence,” David Maslanka’s “Mother Earth” and Karel Husa’s “Apotheosis of this Earth.” Composer Mary Ellen Childs uses Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” to describe Zephyrus (the Greek god of the west wind) breathing life into all things in the spring, and Copland's “The Promise of Living” eloquently describes the cycles of life and thread that knits this concert together.
Both groups are conducted by Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Activities Jessica Kun. A native of Toronto, she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting at Arizona State University, where she guest conducted the Wind Symphony, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds and the Lyric Opera Theatre. Kun holds Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Calgary, Master’s Certificate in conducting from the University of Calgary Wind Conducting Program and a Master of Music degree in musicology from England’s University of Manchester, where she conducted the Symphony Orchestra, chamber ensembles and the New Music Ensemble.
Kun has taught and conducted musicians at all levels, from novice to professional. She has conducted string and full orchestras, symphonic and jazz bands, various types of chamber ensembles, contemporary music ensembles and opera. She has written articles for Canadian music education journals and curriculum documents for the Ontario Ministry of Education.
Kun’s current research includes the development of an interactive mediated system for conducting and conducting pedagogy, using motion capture technology that began at the Arts, Media and Engineering Program at Arizona State University. She has been active as a conductor, adjudicator and clinician in Great Britain, Venezuela, Greece, Spain, France, Sweden, Canada and the United States.
Ranked as one of the best colleges in the northern United States by U.S. News and World Report, Elizabethtown offers its 1900 students 53 academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences and professional studies. Driven by its motto to “Educate for Service,” Elizabethtown centers learning in strong relationships, links classroom instruction with experiential learning, emphasizes international and cross-cultural perspectives and nurtures the capacity for lives of purpose.
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