First week of classes

I'm a week late for this congratulations. SSO's tenor saxophonist, Kirsten Campbell, won Miss Rogue Valley last weekend. Kirsten took first in the talent competition, playing saxophone of course, and will compete for Miss Oregon in June. To read the full Mail Tribune article click here.

Kirsten is a first year student at SOU and has been coming to the Britt Saxophone Workshop for the past three years. She is majoring in criminology and plays tenor saxophone in both the Siskiyou Saxophone Orchestra and the Standard Issue Saxophone Quartet.

The week ended with an exciting performance by Canadian ensemble Quartetto Gelato presented by Chamber Music Concerts. After a few minutes of terrible confusion regarding the new seats prior to the downbeat, Gelato gave an entertaining concert, "Amore." These pictures barely capture Gelato's enthusiastic show enjoyed by a packed house.
We are very fortunate to have Quartetto Gelato in residence for the entire upcoming week thanks to a generous donation from Jim Collier. Each day this week Gelato will visit a public school and present a program of music. Additionally there will be an accordion master class, lectures on promoting an ensemble and being a professional musician, performing for Friday's convocation and a presentation for the School of Business. On Tuesday at 12PM the Siskiyou Saxophone Orchestra and SOU Percussion ensemble will be hosting Gelato's lecture on the business of music and promoting your ensemble. Complete residency schedule
Quartetto Gelato was last in Ashland in the spring of 2006. Since then they have had 50% of their ensemble change. New are clarinetist Kornel Wolak and cellist Carina Reeves. Returning members are violinist Peter De Sotto and accordianist Alexander Sevastian.

This was the first concert with the Recital Hall's new seats. The chairs themselves were well received but we discovered a major problem when the sold out audience tried to find their reserved seats–10 rows had either seats added or subtracted. Apparently this drastic change to the seating chart was not discovered by SOU. It may not sound like a big deal but most of the seat changes removed seats from the "premium" section. This is the section where some season ticket holders and donors have purchased the same seats for nearly twenty years. Everyone at the Department of Music and CMC is hoping the contractors will return quickly and rectify the situation.