UW Cello Festival to Present Two Public Concerts May 4

The University of Wyoming Department of Music’s eighth annual UW Cello Festival will present two free public concerts Saturday, May 4.

The Cello Choir Concert will be at 5 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. The Festival Gala Concert will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts recital hall.

The UW Cello Festival is an informative and inspiring day of community for cellists of all ages and stages. This year’s festival will feature master classes; lectures; technique workshops; a special playing class for adult learners; and a viola da gamba “petting zoo” for those interested in playing the consort of instruments on loan from the Viola da Gamba Society of America.

Festival faculty are cellists David Geber and Julia Lichten, faculty members at the Manhattan School of Music; Douglas Moore, an arranger and conductor; Ryan Walker, a conductor; Becky Kutz Osterberg; Stephanie Flores, the festival’s executive director; Thu Vo, a UW alumna; and Beth Vanderborgh, artistic director and a UW Department of Music professor.

Moore and Walker will conduct the Cello Choir Concert. The program will feature arrangements of intermediate and advanced works by Moore.

The Festival Gala Concert will include works by Schubert, Haydn, Popper and Vivaldi. It will feature Geber, Lichten, Kutz Osterberg, Vo, Flores, Vanderborgh and Jiwon Han, UW staff collaborative pianist.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.