Larry Warkentin recital features premiers, collaboration with Harold Haak

A collaboration between a longtime faculty member and a former president of Fresno Pacific University will be one of three premiers on the program for a May concert.

"Music of Love" is the title of a recital of songs by Larry Warkentin, who composed the entire program. The performance begins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18, in Butler Church, 4884 Butler Avenue, and is sponsored by the FPU Music Department.

Admission is $5 for general audiences and free for children and students. For more information call 559-453-2267.

"The Mubox Bugs" is Warkentin's musical setting of a children's book of the same name by Harold Haak. Warkentin served on the FPU music faculty from 1962-2002. Haak was president of the university from 2000-2002. Haak will narrate the presentation, which will include book illustrations by Jenny, Tommy and Dan Nadaner.

"Liskje jeit no Kallitsch (Lizzie Goes to College)," based on a Low-German poem by C. C. Janzen, will also premier, and "Eleven Little Love Songs," based on poems by Warkentin, will be performed for the first time on the West Coast. Also scheduled are a composition based on First Corinthians 13, "Four Love Poems," text by Rhonda Langley, and "Three Love Poems," text by Emily Dickinson.

Featured performers will be singers Milton Friesen, baritone; Courtney Foster, mezzo-soprano; and Melinda Del Giorgio, soprano. Former minister of music at Visalia First Methodist Church, Friesen has sung with Fresno Lyric Opera and given recitals throughout Central California. Foster has also sung with Fresno Lyric Opera and is an FPU alumna. Del Giorgio is completing her music teaching credential at FPU, were she performed in numerous recitals and soloed with the concert choir.

Author

Wayne Steffen
Associate Director of Publications and Media Relations