The School of Music at Western Carolina University will present “An Evening of German Romantic Music for Clarinet and Piano” on Friday, Nov. 2, and Tuesday, Nov. 6, as part of the Catamount Concert Series.

The concert on Nov. 2 will be held at noon in the Reuter Center at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. The second performance, on Nov. 6, will be held at 8 p.m. in the recital hall of Coulter Building at Western Carolina University.  Both events will be open to the public free of charge.

Clarinetist Shannon Thompson, associate professor of music at Western, and pianist Andrew Adams, assistant professor of piano at Western, will perform masterworks for clarinet and piano, including Brahm’s first sonata, Weber’s “Grand Duo Concertante” and Robert Schumann’s “Fantasy Pieces.” The concert also will include Clara Schumann’s “Romances,” originally written for violin and piano but transcribed by Thompson.

Thompson is the bass clarinetist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and principal clarinetist with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with other orchestras, including the Charleston Symphony. She has appeared as a featured soloist with the WCU Wind Ensemble, as well as the WCU Artist-In Residence Orchestra. She has been a featured artist in Atlanta’s Spivey Concert Hall Recital Series, and performed as a solo artist at the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest.

Adams earned his bachelor’s degree in piano from the Kansas City Conservatory, and earned his master’s degree of music in vocal coaching and accompanying from the University of Illinois. In April 2005, he completed his doctorate of piano performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder. From 2003 to 2006, Adams served as a vocal coach and director of collaborative piano at Iowa State University.

For more information, call the WCU School of Music at (828) 227-7242, or visit the Web site at music.wcu.edu.

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Last modified: Friday, Oct. 19, 2007