Southeastern’s own musicians traveled to the city filled with culture and music to perform two free concerts.
The Department of Fine and Performing Arts gave their first concert on March 26 as part of the Music at Midday Series. Their second concert was performed Sunday, March 30 at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans as part of the Trinity Artist Series.
The performances consisted of a chamber piece for strings by composer Dmitri Shostakovich. These were accompanied by the suite from “A Soldier’s Tale”, arranged for piano by associate professor Henry Jones along with violin and clarinet by composer Igor Stravinksy.
“These concerts are an opportunity for some of our more advanced string students to perform chamber music, and to make our music department more visible in the community,” said Jones.
Students of the String Quartet featured at the concert included Constanta Lungu, Sinae Baek and Sungkyung Woo on violin, Yuliya Vlasova on viola and Eansil Cho on cello.  Graduate student Aaron Turnipseed also performed the clarinet and Jones played the piano.
The string students have had to reach new heights to make their pieces performance level worthy. According to Jones, they have done this, heightening their skills in the process.
“These are difficult pieces and the students have performed them well, and probably stretched their skills by working them up to performance level,” said Jones. “Its always a joy working with these dedicated students.”
The two concerts featured the same music.  
“I performed at the same two places with other string players last year,” said Jones. “The performing spaces are great; the audiences are always very appreciative.”
To find out more about the Department of Fine and Performing Arts and their future concerts, contact the department at 985-549-2184.