Monday, October 19, 1998
			Violinist Mark O’Connor will perform Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Hall of the Performing Arts Center. Named the Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year for six consecutive years, O’Connor is a six-time Grammy nominee and a Grammy Award winner for his groundbreaking New Nashville Cats album. His technique and instrumental mastery transcend musical styles, and he claims fans from a broad range of musical categories: classical, jazz, country, bluegrass, Celtic. O’Connor’s fame has grown in recent years after appearances at a White House state dinner and at the closing ceremonies of the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games, where he performed his “Olympic Reel,” commissioned for the event. O’Connor has been named fiddler of the year eight times by the Academy of Country Music. He was the youngest person ever to win both the Grand Masters Fiddling Championship (at the age of 13) and the National Old-Time Fiddler’s Contest (at the age of 17), and he is the only person to ever hold national titles on three instruments--fiddle, guitar and mandolin. He has performed with most major American symphony orchestras and has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Wynton Marsalis, Lyle Lovett and Paul Simon. His 1996 recording, Appalachia Waltz, on which he collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, remained in the number one spot on Billboard’s classical chart for 16 weeks and became the first album to chart on both the classical and Americana charts. O’Connor’s other recordings include Heroes and The Fiddle Concerto. Earlier this year, O’Connor premiered a new violin concerto commissioned by the Library of Congress. The program for the Oct. 24 concert is called “Midnight on the Water,” a selection of O’Connor’s compositions for violin, mandolin and guitar. Tickets are $20-$24 (half-price for students) from the box office in the Performing Arts Center, 542-4400.
			Marjorie Mussman will discuss her choreography, and the UGA Ballet Ensemble will demonstrate, on Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. in the Carver Studio Theatre. Mussman began her career with the Jose Limon Dance Company and later performed as soloist and principal with the Joffrey Ballet, Anna Sokolow’s Lyric Theatre and the First Chamber Dance Company. She has also worked with the Milwaukee Ballet and the American Repertory Ballet, and has taught and produced for numerous companies. A recipient of five National Endowment for the Arts choreography fellowships, she has produced over 30 ballets during her career.
			In 1994, at the age of 17, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions--the first solo violist chosen in 14 years. In 1995, she made her acclaimed debut recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at the 92nd Street Y in New York. A native of California, Ngwenyama graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and is currently studying at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. She has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and PBS’s Musical Encounter, and gave a stunning performance during a House committee hearing in Washington as an advocate of continued funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Last season, she made her first concert tour of Japan as well as performing in Paris, New York, West Palm Beach and the Virgin Islands. She regularly performs at Spoleto. On Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. in Ramsey Hall, pianist Reiko Uchida will accompany Ngwenyama in a program of Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro; Shostakovich’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 147; Bach’s Suite No. 4 for Solo Viola in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010; and Brahms’s Sonata in F minor for Viola and Piano, Op. 120, No. 1.
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