Jackson State University’s Department of Music stages dual free events this week that entertain and educate as it presents a departmental recital hour highlighting the poems of Margaret Walker Alexander, as well as its 75th Annual Song Festival. The recital will be at noon Wednesday, Feb. 11, and the festival will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12. Both events will be in the F.D. Hall Music Center on the main campus.
Multi-award-winning accomplished pianist and composer Randy Klein will discuss his musical compositions – inspired by poet
Walker Alexander.
The entertainment artist — president of an independent label for improvised music called Jazzhead — blends melodies, harmonies and jazzy rhythms into a masterpiece for solo voice, chorus and piano. The lecture recital in the Jimmie James Recital Hall of the campus music center will provide insight into the composer’s inspiration and techniques used in creating the Walker Alexander musical work of art. Klein is a winner of four Southern Regional Emmy Awards. For more information on Klein, visit www.randyklein.com.
On Friday, the Department of Music will present its clinical festival of high school choral groups. The educational and musical showcase brings together choirs onstage before an audience of other students, directors, parents and guest clinician David Morrow. A native of Rochester, N.Y., Morrow is a professor of music at Morehouse College and has conducted for the Super Bowl and Olympic Games.
The song festival provides performers a pre-evaluation and an opportunity to refine their skills before district and state choral competitions. Auditions for scholarships will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. For more information, contact Willenham Cortez Castilla, director of JSU Choral Activities at 601-979-2891 or 601-979-2141.