NATCHITOCHES – The Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra will perform on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Tickets are $10. Northwestern State University, BPCC@NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with a current student I.D.
Dr. Douglas Bakenhus is music director of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony. Juan Pablo Paternina Paez is the guest conductor. The featured guest musicians are Northwestern State faculty Dr. Christine Allen, Dr. J. Mark Thompson and Dr. Francis Yang.
The program includes “Symphony No. 70” by Franz Joseph Haydn and “Zwei Phantasiestucke” (Two Fantasy Pieces) by Eduard Lassen edited by Thompson and featuring Thompson on bass trombone. The orchestra will also perform “Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra” by Francis Poulenc featuring Allen and Yang on piano and “Hopak” from “Sorochinsky Fair” by Modest Mussorgsky and orchestrated by Anatol Lyadov and revised and edited by Clark McAlister, “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1” by Ottorino Respighi and “Hungarian Dance” from “The Damnation of Faust” by Hector Berlioz.
Allen, an associate professor of piano, teaches applied piano, and coordinates group piano/piano pedagogy. She performs in solo and collaborative settings including guest soloist with the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony and several orchestras in Michigan, Wisconsin and Idaho. For the past eight years, Allen has served as collaborative pianist with the Red River Chorale in Alexandria. She received the Johanna Magale Endowed Professorship and traveled to Poland to study with internationally recognized pianist/composer Andrzej Dutkiewicz at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music.
Allen serves as pedagogy consultant and examiner for the International Visual and Performing Arts Conservatory in Singapore. She is a recognized teacher and clinician in Suzuki Piano Pedagogy and a registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer. She has appeared at conferences across the United States and Canada. A Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) certified teacher, Allen has served on the LMTA State Certification Board, as State chair of the MTNA Collegiate Artist Performance/Chamber Music Auditions, and is currently the LMTA State Chair for Collegiate Chapters. She received the Doctor of Musical Arts from Louisiana State University, Master of Music from Northwestern State University and Bachelor of Music from University of Kansas. Her teachers include Constance Carroll, Jennifer Hayghe, Willis Delony, Robert Watson and Richard Angeletti.
Thompson is a professor of Music. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he holds degrees from Murray State University, University of Southern California, and University of Iowa. A charter life member of the International Trombone Association, Thompson chairs its Advisory Council on Literature, and he is a life member of the International Tuba Euphonium Association. Formerly principal bass trombone of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he performs bass trombone with the Shreveport, South Arkansas, and Texarkana symphonies, as well as the Lancaster (Ohio) Festival and Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, the I-49 Brass and Drei Bones Trombone Trio.
Yang has performed in cities such as London, Paris, Montreal, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Quito, and Montevideo at events such as the 37th International Festival Encuentros in Buenos Aires, a lecture recital at London’s Royal Academy of Music and the VIII Bienal of Contemporary Music in Cuenca, Ecuador. Yang has given master classes in Ecuador, Argentina, Singapore, Canada, China and throughout the U.S. He has been invited to serve as adjudicator for competitions both nationally and internationally, including the Ars Nova International Piano Competition (Singapore), the Louisiana International Piano Competition and the Seattle International Piano Competition.
Yang is an associate professor of piano. He served four years as professor and director of piano studies at the Universidad de Cuenca, in Cuenca, Ecuador. Yang received his doctorate from the Université de Montréal, his master’s from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s from the University of Michigan and studied with pianists Stephane Lemelin, Richard Angeletti, Sequeira Costa, Robert Rogers, and John Bloomfield. He is president of the Louisiana Music Teachers Association.
