The World Comes to Minot
Minot State welcomes award-winning musicians from around the worldBy CEECY NUCKER, Correspondent, ccnucker@yahoo.com
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An evening of music
The performance begins April 30 at 7:30 p.m., with all seats priced at $10. For reservations or for more information, call 858-3185.
With admirable understatement, Minot State University music professor Kenneth Bowles announced "The World is Coming to Minot" -- specifically, to MSU's Ann Nicole Nelson Hall.
"We have several artists who have just won what's known as the Ibla Competition," he said. The name derives from the Italian city the competition is held in.
"It's officially the 'International Music Competitions and Festival,'" he said. "The candidates come from all over, including the Netherlands, (Great Britain), Serbia, (the United States), Germany and Russia, among others."
The competitions are open to any age and feature pianists, singers, composers and instrumentalists. These winners have been presenting programs at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Tokyo Opera City Hall and the Tchaikovsky Bolshoi Hall in Moscow as well as prestigious venues around the world.
There are performers from the United Kingdom in the persons of Jill Kemp, recorder player, and George King, composer. The American winners are pianist Terry Eder and violinist Thomas Huntington. Pianists Julija Bal, Gayane Gasparyan and Adalberto Maria Riva are from Poland, Russia and Italy respectively. The Scholtes-Janssens piano duo is from Holland, and from Germany is the youngest Ibla Grand Prize winner, 12-year-old violinist Elin Kolev.
"How we got them to come here is somewhat of a surprise," Bowles said. "We've known about the organization for a number of years, and just last year we found out we could bring them here.
"It turns out Ragusa-Ibla is the Italian sister-city of Little Rock, Ark.," he said. "I went to school with someone who's now teaching in Little Rock, and connections were made."
At first, MSU was planning to bring in five of the winners, but the others would otherwise be idle, so they booked the entire group.
Assisting with tour details are MSU music faculty Cherie Collins and arts organizer Pam Ondracek.
