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Celebration of Music Concert to Honor WSCL Saturday, May 21

Megan Centineo Catherine Justice-Laird Veronica and Lee Knier Dr. Sachi Murasugi and Dr. Jeffrey Schoyen
Megan Centineo Catherine Justice-Lard Veronica and Lee Knier Dr. Sachi Murasugi and Dr. Jeffrey Schoyen
SALISBURY, MD---Classical music radio station WSCL 98.5-FM is being honored for bringing a live classical music festival, the annual Celebration of Music, to the Delmarva Peninsula.

This year’s Celebration of Music concert is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at Asbury United Methodist Church on Camden Avenue.

The evening celebrates regional classical music performers in Asbury’s acoustically lauded nave, which is transformed into a romantic setting with flowers and candlelight.

This year’s concert features the Allegheny Ensemble, comprised of Jeffrey Schoyen (cello), Sachiho Murasugi (violin) and Ernest Barretta (piano), performing movements from the Arensky and Debussy piano trios. Schoyen is conductor of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra at SU. His wife, Murasugi, is the SSO’s concertmaster.

Other featured musicians and singers include trombonist Lee Knier, pianist Veronica Knier, mezzo-soprano Megan Centineo, soprano Catherine Justice-Lard, the Asbury Chancel Choir, organist Robert Young, flutist Pamela Guidetti-Latimer, oboist Dana Limpert and pianist Amy Vennos.

The conductor of the Salisbury Pops, Knier performs Victor Herbert’s “Canzonetta.” Centineo sings Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Love Bade Me Welcome.”

Justice-Lard, a Salisbury native who recently returned to the United States after living in Paris for several years, sings an aria by Giacomo Meyerbeer and “Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je, Mamam” (also known as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”) by Mozart. Knier accompanies her on piano.

The Asbury Chancel Choir also sings music by Mozart, including selections from his Requiem. Soloists for “Tuba Mirum” include Centineo, soprano Melissa Graham, tenor Don McCabe and bass Jim Andrews. Young directs the choir and plays organ during the concert.

Guidetti-Latimer, who has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Library of Congress, plays Francis Poulenc’s Flute Sonata.

Limpert and Vennos round out the evening, Limpert with “Concert on Themes of La Favorita” by Gaetano Donizetti and Vennos with Liszt’s “Liebestraum.”

WSCL, part of Delmarva Public Radio at Salisbury University, inaugurated The Celebration of Music at Asbury in 1996.  Last year, planning and presentation of the concert transferred to the church’s Music Committee.

Sponsored by The Peter and Judy Jackson Music Performance Fund, admission is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-453-6252.