The Department of Music will kick off 2001 with the Third Annual Choral and Organ Extravaganza, as well as present several diverse faculty recitals.

The first concert of the New Year will be "Quartetto duetti," a faculty recital to be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Slee Concert Hall. Saxophonist Susan Fancher and friends will present an evening of duos featuring saxophone in combination with flute, piano, cello and saxophone.

	Pianist Stephen Manes
	photo: Frank Miller

Joining Fancher will be Mark Engebretson on saxophone, Jonathan Golove on cello, Stephen Manes on piano and Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman on flute.

The music department will present the Third Annual Choral and Organ Extravaganza at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 in Slee, featuring the Choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Paul's Cathedral Girls' Choir and the Westminster Choir from Westminster Presbyterian Church. The choirs will perform music from such composers as Bach, Sweelinck and Bruckner, along with a combined performance of Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb.

These outstanding church choirs and their directors have a long history of performances and tours locally, nationally and abroad. The Westminster Choir has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as in Wales, England and Scotland. Choirmaster and organist Thomas Swan, who has served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus since 1979, has a reputation for programming large, rarely performed choral works to rave reviews.

The Holy Trinity Choir has toured Poland and Germany, and was the first American choir to tour Poland with one of the state orchestras. Choirmaster and organist James Bigham was an organ student at the highly selective Curtis Institute of Music, as well as a student of renowned organist Frederick Swann.

The St. Paul's Cathedral Girls' Choir has traveled to Britain three times, most recently in 1998 when members performed for the Lambeth Conference, the decade's gathering of the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion at Canterbury. Choirmaster and organist Dale Adelmann was awarded a Fulbright fellowship in 1987 to study Anglican choral worship at the University of Cambridge, England, where he was the first American to sing in the renowned Choir of St. John's College.

The music department's Organ Recital Series will continue at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 in Slee with a performance by David Blazer. The program will contain works by such composers as Buxtehude and Hindemith, along with the difficult pedal work of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in F Major.

Blazer has studied organ at the Conservatory of Music of Oberlin College, and has prepared choirs for numerous major works, including a special Italian Festival of Choirs at Carnegie Hall in New York. His previous church choir sang during Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Salzburg Cathedral in Austria.

The music department will continue its tradition of diverse and entertaining faculty recitals at 8 p.m. Feb. 3 in Slee with a performance by percussionist Anthony Miranda, who will be joined by guest artists Alessandra Belloni-one of only a handful of tambourine virtuosi in the world-and the Zodiaque Dance Company.

This program featuring an unusual combination of contemporary dance, traditional Italian song and dance, and pieces for percussion marks an exciting collaboration between the departments of Theatre and Dance and Music.

Several other faculty recitals and collaborations will round out the Slee Hall schedule in February. Flutist Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman and friends will present a sumptuous and evocative ensemble program offering music set for flute, viola and harp at 3 p.m. Feb. 4 in Slee. The program will feature Claude Debussy's Sonata, Bernard Rands' "...sans voix parmi les voix...," Hoffmeister's Duo III and others. Hoffman will be joined by harpist Suzanne Thomas and violist Jesse Levine.

	Percussionist Anthony Miranda

Stephen Manes, professor and chair of the Department of Music, will present an all-Brahms program featuring Brahms' Handel Variations and Sonata No. 3 in F minor, among others, at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 in Slee. The Buffalo News has called Manes "a routinely fine pianist who occasionally converses with the musical gods."

The last faculty recital of the month will be "Tremani!" featuring clarinetist John Fullam at 8 p.m. Feb. 27 in Slee. Fullam will be joined by Glenn Einschlag on bassoon and Don Rebic on piano for a program of works by Glinka, Mendelssohn and Poulenc.

Completing the music department's February schedule will be concerts by its resident ensembles. The Cassatt String Quartet will present the fourth concert of the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle at 8 p.m. Feb. 9 in Slee, while the Amherst Saxophone Quartet will present a concert featuring composers from Buffalo at 8 p.m. Feb. 22, also in Slee.

Single tickets for most concerts sponsored by the Department of Music range from $5 to $12. Discounts are available for seniors, students and UB faculty/staff/alumni for the more expensive concerts.

Tickets may be obtained from the Slee Hall box office Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m., from the Center for the Arts box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. or at TicketMaster outlets.

The full slate of Slee Hall concerts is available online at http://www.slee.buffalo.edu.