NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State music faculty Dr. Malena McLaren, Dr. Masahito Kuroda and Dr. Chialing Hsieh will present a faculty chamber recital on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream.
McLaren will play clarinet, Kuroda will play euphonium and Hsieh will play piano. The program will be “The Piano Trio in Bb major” by Beethoven, “El molinero de Subiza” by Cristóbal Oudrid y Segura, “Pearls for Euphonium and Piano” by Ronald Szentpali and “Piano Trio No. 1” by Felix Mendelssohn.
McLaren is the professor of clarinet at NSU. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master’s degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of New Mexico, and a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of North Texas. Her teachers include Keith Lemmons and Dr. James Gillespie. McLaren has performed chamber and solo repertoire throughout the U.S., Slovakia, the Czech Republic, England, Spain, and Belgium. She is a core member of the Rapides Symphony Orchestra. Her scholarly works include two articles in The Clarinet. She has performed in solo recitals at the 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2018 International ClarinetFest conferences.
In 2011 she received the Magale Endowed Professorship to perform and conduct archival research in Madrid, Spain. She served as Coordinator of the ICA Research Presentation Competition from 2014-2016 and currently serves as the Louisiana ICA State Chair. McLaren was invited to perform a lecture recital at the 2015 ClarinetFest in Madrid, Spain, and perform at the 2018 ICA ClarinetFest in Belgium. She gave a lecture presentation at the 2021 ICA ClarinetFest.
Kuroda is the professor of euphonium-tuba/sound technician/ coordinator of media recording and streaming at NSU. He holds a B.M.E. degree from Tokyo Gakugei University, a M.M. from Morehead State University, and Artis Doctor Musica (DMA) from Slovak National Academy of Music. Receiving a full scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education, he studied with many renowned low brass artists in European countries and the U.S. He has held solo recitals and masterclasses in music institutions in U.S., Europe, and Japan. Kuroda held the nation’s first euphonium solo recital in Slovak Republic. He is also a solo euphoniumist of British Brass Band Society of Louisiana. His research activities includes a published article on band euphonium parts in The Instrumentalist journal, micro-droplet study on playing brass instruments, as well as acoustic studies in tuba family instruments.
Hailed as a “brilliant pianist” (Fanfare), Hsieh has performed recitals in Europe, Asia, and throughout the United States and has been a featured pianist on seven CD’s for the Centaur, Innova, Enharmonic, and Ballpark record labels. Hsieh is an associate professor of collaborative piano at Northwestern State, and has given masterclasses throughout the United States and abroad and served as a judge and adjudicator for competitions and events. She earned her M.M. and D.M.A. in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.
