The UNLV Symphony Orchestra will present its first concert of the season at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 16 in Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall on the UNLV campus. The program will feature the Nevada premier of American composer Eric Ewazen's Chamber Symphony. Ewazen is composer-in-residence at the Juilliard School of Music.
Soloist for the evening will be bassoonist Brian Marsh, winner of the 2001 James Huntzinger Soloist Competition, performing Mozart's "Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat." Following intermission, the orchestra will perform Beethoven's Symphony #7. The concert, conducted by George Stelluto, is free and open to the public.
The UNLV Symphony Orchestra is comprised of undergraduate and graduate music majors and minors in the UNLV College of Fine Arts as well as non-music majors in other departments at the university. These students come from across the U.S. and around the world.
Ewazen has been a member of the Juilliard School faculty since l980. He has been vice president of the League-ISCM, composer-in-residence with the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble and with the International Trombone Association Convention in 1997, and lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series.
A native of Las Vegas, Marsh has performed with many orchestras in and out of the valley. Starting late on bassoon as a sophomore in high school, he quickly established recognition by winning Command Performance twice at the All-state solo & ensemble competition, a feat rarely achieved, especially for a wind player.
Stelluto is music director of the UNLV Symphony Orchestra and the Las Vegas Music Festival. He has appeared as conductor with the Transylvanian State Philharmonic (Romania), Kiev Philharmonic (Ukraine), Hartford Symphony Orchestra (CT), Nevada Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut String Orchestra, the Peter Britt Music Festival (OR), Winona Symphony Orchestra (MN), Yale School of Music, Aspen Music School and Festival, Wieniawski String Orchestra of Poland, Youth Orchestra of the Bern Conservatory (Switzerland), and the Pasadena Youth Symphony (CA) among others. He is currently involved in a new recording project for TNC Recordings in the U.S.
