Bulgaria Project Concert

WVU Parkersburg to host "Faculty as You've Never Seen Them Before" concert.

CONTACT: Rebecca Phillips, professor of English, 304-424-8282.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A concert entitled "Faculty as You've Never Seen Them Before" will be held Sunday, Jan. 22, at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

The college's Bulgaria Project Committee is sponsoring the 2 p.m. concert as an opportunity to escape the winter blues.

To be held in the multi-purpose room, the concert will showcase the talents of WVU Parkersburg faculty and friends. Performances will feature Chase Brady, Carson Soelberg, Too Far Gone, and the Helium Singers.

Math instructor Brady is known on campus primarily as a master of statistics and polynomials. He also spends a great deal of time studying the human condition, mainly through writing and playing music. His music inhabits the borderland between country, blues, and folk. One reviewer said of his CD "Heartbeat of the Words," "His songs take listeners into worlds they might not have explored before, microcosms of humanity that seem familiar - almost too familiar - and yet so strange at times that one feels as if another life has been waiting in plain view, just biding its time until it is discovered." His newest CD, "Coyote Heart," will be available at the concert, with all proceeds from that day’s sales donated to the Bulgaria Project.

Soelberg is the college's director of theatre and promises to offer something unusual for concert goers. As a playwright, Carson has seen ten of his original works produced by theatre companies, many of them musicals. The most recent was How I Spent My Summer Vacation (No, Really!), which was premiered in Kansas in the summer of 2004. He has been offered a guest artist position with Ford’s Theatre Company for the summer of 2006 to write and direct an original musical for this ensemble. The working title of the show is And Pigs Shall Fly!

A six-piece ensemble of area musicians, Too Far Gone offers a variety of both contemporary and classic songs. Two-, three-, or even four-part vocal harmonies are a prominent component of the band's unique presentation. Additionally, the blend of guitars, keyboards, bass, and an occasional violin combine with the vocal mix for an interesting and enjoyable experience. The band members of Too Far Gone have a wide range of musical experience, some having played in bands since their early teens. Guitarist/vocalist Neal Graham met keyboardist and WVU Parkersburg electronics engineering faculty member Dave Thompson in junior high school. They have played together in such bands as Solitude and Heat Wave, and separately in other local bands, including Dirty Nellie and Onyx. Dave and WVU Parkersburg English instructor Mark Bruce met in the 1970's and have played together in several bands, including Roadwork and Elizabeth Lake. Too Far Gone also includes female vocalists Marty McFee and Jan Graham whose intricate vocal harmonies are a trademark of the group’s style, as well as bassist/guitarist Rick Budgett, who has more than 30 years’ musical experience and is currently lead guitarist with Work in Progress.

The Helium Singers are a group of current and retired female faculty, known for a capella performances at campus retirement parties. This will be the group’s first performance for a general audience. The ensemble includes Maggie Berdine, professor of English; Barbara Harris, instructor of speech; Joyce Kronberg, professor of biology; Martha McGovern, assistant professor of reading; Rebecca Phillips, professor of English; Lisa Flowers-Clements, coordinator of developmental education; retired WVU Parkersburg faculty member Nancy Pansing Wymond and retired college counselor Janet Ogilvie. The Singers boast a range of five decades and half an octave.

The concert is part of a series of fund-raising activities sponsored by the WVU Parkersburg Bulgaria Project. The project grew out of a 2002 Fulbright Grant that sent 12 WVU Parkersburg faculty and students to the University of Rousse, Bulgaria, for four weeks. Since then, faculty have continued to travel between Bulgaria and West Virginia, with six Bulgarian faculty members spending two weeks in West Virginia in summer 2005. The project’s goal is to continue formal faculty exchanges between the two schools, with the current fundraising used to bring Rousse faculty to WVU Parkersburg in 2007 for classroom and public presentations.

Concert tickets are $5 for WVU Parkersburg students and $10 for general admission and are available in the college business office or at the door. Further information is available by contacting Rebecca Phillips of the Bulgaria Project Committee, 424-8282.

cd01/09/2006

For additional information, contact:
Connie Dziagwa
WVU Parkersburg
Executive Director
Institutional Advancement
304-424-8203