Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Skip Gray, professor of music at the University of Kentucky, will present a guest tuba recital at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, in Cole Concert Hall, located in the Wright Music Building on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. The free recital is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music.

The program includes Allen Vizzutti's "Fantasie for Tuba and Piano," a piece originally composed for tuba and brass band. Gray and James Pitts, SFA staff accompanist, will perform Gray's arrangement for tuba and piano.

The duo will also perform Zoltán Gárdonyi's "Sonata for Tuba and Piano." The work, written between 1948 and 1951, was recently discovered in Hungary and is now believed to be the first sonata written for the tuba, explained J.D. Salas, SFA instructor of tuba and euphonium.

Salas, who studied under Gray, will join his professor in presenting Gray's "Sketches from the Shire for Two Tubas."

Gray joined the University of Kentucky faculty in 1980 and has appeared as a tuba soloist and clinician throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. He has also served as the principal tuba with the Lexington (Kentucky) Philharmonic.

Additionally, he performed for three years with the Munich Brass, a professional ensemble based in Germany, and two years as the principal tuba with the Orchestra Sinfonica di torino della RAI in Turin, Italy.

Gray has presented master classes and clinics at major venues throughout the world, including the Hoschschule for Muisk in Cologne, Germany, the Royal Victorian Conservatory of Music in Melbourne, Australia, and the Sibelius Conservatory in Helsinki, Finland.

While on campus, Gray will present a master class for SFA tuba and euphonium students Friday, Feb. 8, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall, Room 160 of the Wright Music Building.

The master class and concert are both sponsored in part by Yamaha and are open to the public. The Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building is located at 2210 Alumni Drive.

For more information on the concert, please call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.