University of Mount Olive recital to feature Dr. Alan Armstrong
By From staff reports
Published in News on March 4, 2018 3:05 AM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Dr. Alan Armstrong will be featured in a recital at the University of Mount Olive at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in the Hazel Waters Kornegay Assembly Hall, 207 Wooten St.
The recital is entitled "Welcome to my World," which Armstrong calls a "retrospective of 50 years of performances."
He has invited several friends to join him in works that represent his eclectic tastes and interests, including pieces for piano, cello, and of course, bagpipes.
The program will include performance of several piano works that have been "signposts" in his journey with music.
These pieces include Ernesto Lecuona's "Malagueña," Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata Op. 13 Pathétique," Frederic Chopin's "Military Polonaise in A," and George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
Dr. Franklin Gross will join him on a second piano during the Gershwin performance.
Dr. William Ford on flute and Scott Pagona on trumpet will then join Armstrong to perform several of his published hymn arrangements.
Armstrong's recital will also include a performance of "Highland Cathedral."
For this performance, bagpipers Joseph Brady and Marshall Dalton, grandson of former Mt. Olive Pickle Co. president, the late Johnny Walker, will join the stage.
Drummer Michal Ianuzzi and organist Cathy Mason will also perform. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Armstrong will perform an Irish tune on the cello.
Come join Armstrong as he presents "Welcome to My World," and take a journey through his musical career.
Armstrong earned a B.M. in Ed. and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University and a M.M. in piano performance from Bradley University.
Following several years in full time music ministry, he served on the faculty of Southeastern University, Ohio State University, and the University of Mount Olive.
In his role as a music scholar, he is acknowledged the world over for his ground-breaking work on composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and bagpipe teacher, composer, and author John Grant of Edinburgh.
Armstrong has been the principal cellist of the Wilson Symphony Orchestra for over a decade and a half, serves as Minister of Music at Faith Fellowship Church, Kinston, and performs on the bagpipes with the Wake and District Public Safety Pipes and Drums.
His greatest joy, however, is teaching in the UMO Department of Music, and he especially enjoys directing Free Spirit, which he founded in 1996.
Armstrong resides in Goldsboro with his wife, Anita, and their two Maltese pups.
They have two children and five grandchildren.
For more information, contact Franklin Gross at wgross@umo.edu.
The University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values.
The university, sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists, has locations in Mount Olive, New Bern, Wilmington, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Research Triangle Park, Washington, Jacksonville, and in Smithfield at Johnston Community College.
For more information, visit www.umo.edu.