[NEohioPAL]The second annual Akron Summer Music Festival

[Johnny Wu]

PRESS RELEASE:

   The second annual Akron Summer Music Festival will
be held in July 7th through August 4th this year.  

   The opening concert will be on Thursday, July 7th,
featuring an exciting performance by Akropolis.  Begun
in 1987, Akropolis features music faculty from The
University of Akron.  The ensemble members include
Kenneth Wilhelm, tenor; Denise Milner Howell,
mezzo-soprano; Alfred Anderson, baritone; Lara Troyer,
soprano; and Mayumi Kikuchi, piano.  

   The second concert is on Thursday, July 14th, by
the Johannes Trio featuring piano trios by Haydn and
Dvorak.  Formed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in
1999, members are Shieh-Jian Tsai, a violinist of the Buffalo
Philharmonic Orchestra, Jim Lee, cello faculty of the Pasadena
Conservatory and the Akron Summer Music Festival artistic director,
Tatsuya Nagashima.  

   The third concert on July 30 will feature the
Buckeye Emerging Artist Award winner, Tracy Parish
(trumpet). The Buckeye Emerging Artist Award is given
to an outstanding young musician from Ohio, selected
through tape and live auditions.  Tracy, a native of
Athens, Ohio, is a graduate of Ohio University and
will be attending the University of Illinois to pursue
his Doctoral degree in trumpet performance next fall. 
Mr. Parish will be joined by Tatsuya Nagashima
(piano), a violin faculty member of the Cleveland
Institute of Music, Jiah Chung, and the music director
of the Montrose Zion United Methodist Church, Ted
Peplowski (trumpet) and they will perform works by
Bernstein, Bach, Hindemith and Eric Ewazen (www.ericewazen.com), a
Cleveland native and renowned composer who is a faculty member at the
Juilliard School.  
  
   The concluding concert and the highlight of this
season is a piano recital by celebrated pianist Ian
Hobson (http://www.music.uiuc.edu/Sinfonia) on August
4th. As a Grammy nominated pianist, Mr. Hobson has
over 40 CD recordings and is a favorite guest soloist
of world's most prestigious orchestras and concert
halls.  The winner of prestigious Leeds International
piano competition in England Mr. Hobson is currently
recording complete piano works by Chopin in Poland.
After the project, he will tour Albania and Italy
before he comes to Ohio to perform at the Akron Summer
Music Festival and to serve as the chairman of jury at
this year's Cleveland International Piano Competition.
 

   The Akron Summer Music Festival was founded last
summer by a Bath residence and internationally
acclaimed pianist, Tatsuya Nagashima (http://www.Tatsuya-Pianist.org).
The annual summer concert series is aim to bring world-class performance
to the area with reasonable price and break the barrier between audience
and performer through question and answer sessions and trivia quizzes
where audience can win prizes (gift certificates, CDs, etc.) during the
concert.  
   
   All concerts will start at 7:00 p.m. and will be
held at Montrose Zion United Methodist Church (565 N.
Cleveland-Massillon Rd)  General ticket for individual concert is $10,
senior and student ticket is $7. 
Series tickets (all 4 concerts) are $35 general and
$25 for senior and students.  For more information,
please visit http://www.AkronSMF.com or call
330-668-0129.



WebSites:
http://www.tatsuya-pianist.org http://artsmanagementservices.com
http://www.eroica.com/tn-artist.html 
http://www.jamesarts.com/Angelok1.htm
http://www.AkronSMF.com