April 16, 1997

CONTACT: Rosemary Gladden, 594-2585

SDSU music professors return from ambassadors tour, perform "Welcome Home" concert for the community

Two SDSU professors who are currently touring Latin American countries as U.S. music ambassadors will perform a free "Welcome Home" concert for the community.

The free concert, which will include anecdotes from their tour, will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4 in SDSU's Smith Recital Hall. This will be the first performance by Marian Liebowitz and Karen Follingstad after their return on April 29.

The Liebowitz/Follingstad duo was one of nine duos chosen from 44 finalists nationwide in the 1997 Artistic Ambassador program of the United States Information Agency and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Under the auspices of American embassies, winners traveled to countries not frequented by American artists to present concerts, master classes and lectures/recitals at Latin American conservatories, theatres and universities. They also performed at embassies and offered career development training to emerging artists. Liebowitz said that Nicaragua, one of seven Latin American countries that they toured, had not been visited by an American artist in four years.

The "Welcome Home" concert will include performances of Gerald Finzi's "Five Bagatelles," and "Sonata" in f minor, Op. 120 by Brahms. In addition, Liebowitz and Follingstad will perform two new works commissioned by SDSU in the duo's honor -- "Dance Suite" by John Lorge and "Variations on Themes of Thelonious Monk" by Rick Helzer. Lorge and Helzer are on SDSU's faculty.

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