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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
4/06/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES -Three members of Northwestern State University's music faculty are spending spring break in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic performing and meeting with fellow music faculty and students. The trip is being financed with a grant from the NSU Enrichment Fund.
NSU faculty Douglas Bakenhus, Dennette McDermott and Malena McLaren, who form the group Trio de Llano will be in the Czech and Slovak Republics through April 15. The group with McLaren on clarinet, Bakenhus on bassoon and McDermott on flute will perform works by Andre Eler, Villa-Lobos, Erwin Schulhoff, Walter Piston, Jindrich Feld and Robert Muczynski. A concert is scheduled at the Bratislava Conservatory of Music in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic.
"We will have an opportunity to meet faculty at the Bratislava Conservatory of Music including those who teach the same instruments we teach," said McDermott. "We will learn how they teach music and will probably find out that we have a lot in common."
They will also bring along various American pieces of music and will learn about works done by composers from Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics.
"The faculty and students want to obtain new music and it is very difficult for them to obtain works by American composers," said McDermott. "There are also many talented composers in Eastern Europe that we are not aware of. This trip will give us an opportunity to be exposed to their music."
According to McDermott, the trip may also help NSU in its international recruiting. Three current Northwestern students attended the Bratislava Conservatory and other students at the Conservatory are interested in the university.
McDermott, a former recipient of the Mildred Hart Bailey Research Award, has made numerous trips to the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic to meet fellow musicians and develop international exchanges over the last decade. Three years ago, she organized the first Slovak Flute Festival in Bratislava. McDermott has also taught at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Czech Republic.