Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Church musicians, pianists, students not majoring in music, and others with at least late-intermediate performance skills may be interested in a special class forming at Mississippi State.
Karen Murphy of the university's music department is planning a spring semester course in collaborative piano ensemble. For those enrolled at MSU, the 3000-level class offers one hour of academic credit.
"Instruction will be delivered in three ways," said Murphy, a piano instructor and the department's accompanist. "First, students will be given time to work independently with an assigned student partner; second, the duo will receive individual faculty coaching; and, finally, peer review will be a part of the master-class portion of the semester's work.
Since day and time must be determined on an individual basis, the class will be listed in the Registrar's Office course offerings as "to be announced."
"In a similar class offered at Arizona State, piano teachers in the community appreciated having the opportunity to receive helpful ideas, support and positive feedback from university faculty," Murphy observed.
As for non-music majors, Murphy said there likely are many "who have had 5-10 years of piano but have decided to major in another academic field. They might like to continue playing the piano, but do not have an avenue to do so."
Even though the course will have an upper-level numerical listing, freshman with appropriate piano skills would be allowed to enroll, she added.
For more information, contact Murphy at kmurphy@colled.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.