NATCHITOCHES – Dr. Rossana Cauti and Dr. Issac Lausell will present a guest artist recital at Northwestern State University on Friday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream. 

Cauti, an Italian-Brazilian violist enjoys a musical career that spans through Europe, Latin America and the United States. A versatile musician, she is an active soloist and chamber musician, a dedicated teacher, and a frequent orchestral performer. Cauti is the assistant principal viola of the Pensacola, Northwest Florida and Tallahassee symphony orchestras and the executive and artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival “Suoni d’Abruzzo” (Italy). 

A passionate chamber musician, Cauti is regularly invited to perform and teach in international chamber music festivals such as “Estate Musicale Frentana” (Italy), “Festival Settembre in Musica” (Italy), “The Southern Illinois Music Festival” (USA), “International Chamber Music Festival Del Garda” (Italy), “New York Summer Music Festival” (USA), “Festival de Musica de Campinas” (Brazil). 

Lausell is the chair of the guitar program and director of Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Music. At SIUC Lausell teaches courses in classical and jazz guitar, jazz ensembles, oversees the guitar area, performs and composes music for the jazz ensemble in residence the New Arts Jazztet. 

As a recording artist and clinician, Lausell is active teaching and performing across the U.S., Latin America and Europe. He is the founder of the SIU International Guitar Festival and during the summer teaches at Festival Suoni D’Abruzzo, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. 

As a writer, Lausell has developed methods for jazz improvisation and for classical guitar technique. His approach combines lute, classical and electric guitar technique along with modal, tonal and post tonal music theory models. His writings integrate various academic disciplines such as ethnomusicology, history, physical training and visual arts.