Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz to Perform at UA as Part of Celebrity Series

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio will perform in the Moody Music Building Concert Hall at The University of Alabama Saturday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the UA’s School of Music Celebrity Series, sponsored by the Gloria Narramore Moody Foundation.

The Appalachia Waltz Trio seems an unlikely name for a chamber ensemble unless you know that Mark O’Connor is the foremost practitioner of the American school of string playing – a phrase he uses to describe a performance style that melds the aspects of several centuries of American musical culture with the European classical tradition.

Violinist Carol Cook and cellist Natalie Haas complete the trio who play the music O’Connor created for “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey,” his recording projects with Yo-Yo Ma and Edger Meyer. As composer, violinist and fiddler, O’Connor acknowledges his mentors Benny Thomasson and Stephane Grappelli, but he has created a distinctive genre that is unmistakably his own.

The UA School of Music is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state with 6,600 students and 360 faculty. Students from the college have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.

Single ticket prices for the concert are $22 and $15 for general admission and $7 for students. They are available for purchase at the box office at 205/348-7111.

About the Gloria Narramore Moody Foundation: The Moody Foundation was founded in 1990 by Gloria Moody and her husband, the late Tuscaloosa businessman Frank McCorkle Moody, to support the arts and music.

In addition to bringing world-class performers to Alabama, the Moody Foundation has endowed scholarships at UA and has supported arts organizations elsewhere in the United States.

This is the 17th year the Moody Foundation has brought internationally acclaimed talent to Alabama and underwritten the performances of world-class performers such as the Guarneri String Quartet, pianist Awadagin Pratt, soprano Benita Valente of the New York Metropolitan Opera, violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, with pianist Emanuel Ax, in a joint recital at The University of Alabama.

The UA School of Music is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state with 6,600 students and 360 faculty. Students from the college have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.