NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

9/16/2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES-Baritone Dr. Jeffrey Snider and pianist Dr. Nikita Fitenko will perform in concert at Northwestern State University Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Snider is the chair of the Division of Vocal Studies at the University of North Texas. Fitenko is an assistant professor of piano at NSU.

A native of Buffalo, Snider received a bachelor's and master's degree from Indiana University and a doctorate at North Texas. He has been a member of the music faculty at North Texas for four years.

During the 2001-2002 season, he appeared with the Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Snider also performed at the University of Missouri. In 1999, he appeared with the University of North Texas Grand Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" as part of the opening gala concert for the Murchison Performing Arts Center. In 1997, Snider performed the title role in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee as winner of its Regional Artists Competition.

Snider placed second in the Fort Worth Opera Guild's Marguerite McCammon Competition and has been a recipient of a Dallas Opera Career Development Grant. He also placed third in the Southwest Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was named Singer of the Year by the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Fitenko is in his second year on Northwestern's faculty. A native St. Petersburg, Russia, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory with a Citation for Excellence in Piano Performance. The citation had been given to only five other graduates in the last 50 years.

After being awarded a "City of Weimar" stipend from East Germany, he made his formal debut in 1992 with the St. Petersburg Cappella Symphony. He has also performed in concert in Finland, Greece, Russia and Byelorussia. Fitenko continued his studies at the University of North Texas, where he received his master's and doctorate degrees studying with Professor Joseph Banowetz.

In 1995 he was awarded top prizes in the Beethoven International Competition and the National Young Artists Competition of the Houston Symphony. The same year Fitenko was granted the Anton Rubinstein Memorial Award at the University of North Texas. In 1996 he won the Beethoven Prize at the Byelorussian International Piano Competition. Since then, he has performed extensively in the former Soviet Union, throughout Europe, and North and South America.

His three CD's of complete music by the Russian composers Georgy Sviridov and Sergei Slonimsky were internationally released in 1999 and 2000.

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