DANA NEW MUSIC SOCIETY Fall concerts present student, faculty music

Three world premieres by student composers are planned.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Dana New Music Society will feature works by student and faculty composers in their annual fall concerts, Wednesday and Oct. 21.
Members of the Composers Ensemble will perform.
The main concert will be at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Bliss Recital Hall at Youngstown State University. Clarinetist Christen Mather will be featured on some works, including a piece by South African composer Surendran Reddy.
There will be two additional programs: one at the Butler Institute of American Art's brown bag lunch series, at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday; and the other at the Dana School of Music Convocation at Bliss Recital Hall at 11 a.m. Oct. 21.
All of the concerts are free and open to the public.
Dedication
The programs are dedicated to the memory of Dr. Raoul Ronson, a publisher of contemporary music who recently died in New York. Ronson's catalog at Seesaw Music Corp., where he served as president and chief executive, is considered one of the world's finest and includes work by more than 400 composers.
Ronson came to the United States during the Korean War as a correspondent for a Rome newspaper. He was drafted into Army intelligence and became involved in the negotiations to end the conflict.
He served as an art editor in New York and started a publishing house for original contemporary music. He was a record producer for several major labels in New York and served as a consultant for the establishment of Dana Recording Project, Dana School of Music's own record label.
A piece by Robert Rollin, a Dana faculty member, titled "The Wandering Bird," will be performed by Rollin and his wife, Gwyneth, in Ronson's memory.
Three world premieres by student composers will be featured: Duet for Flutes by Ashtabula resident Christopher Mead; Baroque Style for Two Violins by Wheeling, W.Va., native Wendy Erin Portis; and "Broken Bowl" by Clarion, Pa., resident Jared Yount.
Graduate flute student Eduardo Mandujano-Aguilar from Mexico will perform the imaginative "Three Pieces for Flute," by French composer Pierre Octave Ferroud, at the Butler and Oct. 21 programs. Local pianist Tim Webb, who is studying graduate composition at Dana, will present his DreamSuite for Piano ("Invitation to the Trance").