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Whether students have been taking piano lessons since they were five or just started fooling around with the guitar last year, they can find lots of ways to hone their skills in the Music Department.Steven Jones, director of the classical guitar ensembles, combines players of similar ability into several ensembles that will play pieces by Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and other musicians and composers.

There are three jazz bands grouped according to ability and specialty. Professor Andrea Baker-Wilkerson directs all three groups.

The ‘Jazz Rock Big Band’ is made up of mostly music majors. The ‘Studio Jazz Ensemble’ and the PCC ‘Big Jazz Combo’ combine music students and musicians from the community. The jazz combo focuses on improvisation.

“Each band has a full rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar and drums. They are all outstanding players, ” said Baker-Wilkerson.

The students in Anne Marie Ketchum’s class will be performing complete opera scenes from works by Mozart, Bizet, Rossini, Puccini, Verdi and other composers. The scenes will be presented in their original languages. Ketchum will preview each scene with a brief explanation of the context of the opera so the audience can understand.

Twenty singers who were admitted to the class based on auditions will be performing. Most of the singers are studying voice privately because opera requires “the most refined kind of vocal technique. They need to be able to carry their own [musically],” says Ketchum.

Ketchum feels that many don’t understand opera. She tells audiences that opera contains human stories about love, hate, jealousy and magic. “It is absolutely gorgeous music,” she says.

Whatever the musical tastes, or if people just want to try listening to a new genre of music they have never tried before, the music department has something to offer.

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