FOCUS ON: Liberace Wind Quintet

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Sacramento State is helping to meet the need for more teachers through a program combining education and mathematics.
 
(Narrator:) This is “Focus” from the campus of Sacramento State.

(Music from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf)

(Jim Finnerty reporting:) These students at Sacramento’s Phoebe Hearst Elementary School are being entertained by a select group of musicians from Sacramento State.

(Daniel Webster, music student, Sacramento State:) “In some ways I think it’s more fun than playing in front of a bunch of adults who just sit there and clap, because the kids, they smile and you can tell they’re getting stuff out of it.”

(Finnerty:) Daniel Webster is one of five students in the classical music quintet supported by scholarships from the Liberace Foundation.

(Pete Nowlen, Sacramento State music professor:) “The Liberace Foundation was founded by the entertainer, Liberace, and is dedicated to providing scholarships to students in the arts and has provided millions of dollars in such scholarships.”

(Finnerty:) The quintet performs before thousands of students during the year at public schools in the region as well as concerts on campus. The university students must audition to earn a place in the quintet, showing exceptional skill in oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn or flute.

(Stephen Bingen, music student, Sacramento State:) “Being in a chamber group allows you to tap into the soloistic style of playing. I’ve grown as a musician so much more than I would have had I not been a part of this experience. Well, the students are very demanding of themselves. As performers, one of the things you have to learn is how to perform well. I’m looking for that communication and that reaching for the audience to bring them into the process of what’s being performed.”

(Finnerty: ) Students say that community outreach through music is an integral part of developing their skills.

(Bingen: ) “It’s a really satisfying experience. It’s something you can’t really put into words, and it’s never done, it’s never done.”

(Finnerty:) This is Jim Finnerty reporting.

(Narrator:) For more information on this and other news from Sacramento State, visit our website.