Mozart Celebration, Spaghetti Dinner Oct. 22

The Music Department at Fairmont State will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth with a University-Community Chorus and Orchestra concert on Sunday, Oct.22. The concert takes place in Colebank Hall at 3 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information about the concert, call (304) 367-4219.

The Fairmont State student chapter of Music Educators National Conference will be hosting a spaghetti dinner before the concert. The dinner will be served from 12:30-2:30 p.m. in the Falcon Center Third Floor Conference Rooms and will include entertainment by Fairmont State music education majors. Admission for the dinner will be by donation. For more information about the dinner, contact Dr. Mary Lynne Bennett at (304) 367-4179.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756. For the entire year 2006, musicians around the globe are honoring the child prodigy who grew up to be a musical genius and one of the world's greatest composers. The Fairmont State Mozart Celebration will be conducted by Jeffrey Poland, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. Singers in the University-Community Chorus are the Fairmont State Collegiate Singers, the Marion Chorale and volunteers from the greater Fairmont area, including members of the university faculty and staff. The featured guest artist on the program is soprano Jane Lightfoot.

The performance includes three works that Mozart wrote for his home church, the Salzburg Cathedral. They are Regina Coeli (K.276), Te Deum (K. 141) and the Solemn Vespers of the Confessor (K. 339). All three pieces are sung in Latin and contain brilliant festive music with exciting passages for strings, trumpets and timpani. Also on the program is the concert aria Exsultate, jubilate to be sung by Lightfoot. This piece contains a well known and popular "Alleluia" that requires considerable vocal dexterity.

Jane Lightfoot lives in Morgantown and teaches voice. A California native, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from California State University at Northridge and her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from West Virginia University. She has sung professionally with the Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and the Redlands Symphony, to name a few. Other soloists include four members of the Marion Chorale, Fairmont's auditioned community choir. The solo quartet is soprano Rebecca Cobb, alto Carolyn Sheets, tenor Bradley Tenney and bass David Callis.