Symphony tunes up for season

By Staff
GUEST PERFORMER Stanislav Ioudenitch is the guest performer at Meridian Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of the 2003-2004 season. The concert will be 8 p.m. Saturday in Meridian Community College's McCain Theater. Before the concert, a reception will take place at the Meridian Museum of Art.
By Penny Randall / staff writer
Aug. 31, 2003
Meridian Symphony Orchestra opens its 2003-2004 season with a special event held in collaboration with Meridian Museum of Art.
A pre-concert reception will be from 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Meridian Museum of Art.
The joint venture will feature works by Walter Anderson. John Marshall, Meridian Community College art instructor and curator of the Casteel Gallery, will speak about Anderson's life and influences.
Following the reception, the symphony will present the "Walter Anderson Centennial Concert."
The concert will be at 8 p.m. in the McCain Theater in Ivy Hall on the MCC campus. This performance will feature slides of Walter Anderson's work with music for a complete "Anderson experience."
MSO conductor
MSO conductor Claire Fox Hillard also will speak about his feelings for the music and why he chose it for this performance.
Guest artist Stanislav Ioudenitch also will be available to answer any questions from the audience at the museum gathering.
Iuodenitch, a Van Cliburn gold medalist, will be featured as a guest pianist performing St. Saen's "Piano Concerto No. 2." The MSO will conclude the performance with Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7," which Anderson referred to as one of his favorites.
Foreign artist
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Ioudenitch has grown into one of the music world's most promising young artists exhibiting a strong individuality and musical conviction that sets him apart from other artists of his generation.
He has netted top prizes at the Busoni, Kapell and Maria Callas Competitions. He took first prize at both the 1998 Palm Beach Invitational and the 2000 New Orleans International Piano Competitions.
Ioudenitch has performed in Germany, England, Finland, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United States, as well as throughout the former Soviet Republics.
He will appear in the upcoming PBS "Concerto," series which showcases his final round Cliburn Competition performances with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Maestro James Conlon.
Ioudenitch also will appear in recital at Carnegie Hall's eagerly anticipated new Zankel Hall in the spring of 2004.