Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Stephen F. Austin State University will open its 2007-2008 orchestral season with a concert by the Chamber Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The three pieces on the program are "very familiar works," said Gene H. Moon, director of orchestral activities at SFA and the orchestra's director.

The ensemble will open the concert with Arthur Luck's arrangement of Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune," followed by Richard Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll," a work intended to remain in the family as a birthday gift to his wife, Cosima.

"For the second half of the program, we will perform Joseph Haydn's 'Miracle' Symphony, one of the composer's many works that show his brilliant craftsmanship and innovative use of melodies and harmonies," Moon said.

Moon joined the SFA faculty in 2006 and also serves as the music director of the Orchestra of the Pines. Prior to coming to Nacogdoches, he was the music director of the Civic Orchestra at the University of Oklahoma and assistant conductor of the University of Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra.

He is an active pianist, violist and conductor. His conducting and performing engagements span the country from California, Oklahoma, New Jersey and New York and abroad in Korea and Taiwan. Active as a clinician and artist, Moon is on the faculty of several summer workshops and music camps and is a sought-after adjudicator throughout the region.

The Chamber Orchestra's concert is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music. It is sponsored in part by Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital and the Wedgeworth-Wright Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students. For tickets or more information, please visit www.sfasu.edu/finearts or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.