Marshunda Smith featured in showcase concert for USM Graduate Students

Marshunda Smith, of Saco, youth orchestra conductor at the Mountain Top Music Center in Conway will be among the eight featured performers at the University of Southern Maine School of Music's annual graduate student showcase recital at 5 p.m., Saturday, April 11, in Corthell Concert Hall, on the USM Gorham campus.Smith is a graduate conducting student at the school. She will conduct the opening performance by members of the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, performing Divertimento No. 10, K. 247 by Wolfgang A. Mozart. Marshunda Smith is originally from Chattanooga, Tenn., and received her bachelor of arts degree with a music concentration from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She worked with the Knoxville Youth Orchestra Symphony, and was assistant orchestra director at Oakridge (Tenn.) High School. She came to study orchestral conducting at USM with Dr. Robert Lehmann on a full graduate scholarship. In May of 2007, she accepted youth orchestra conducting positions at the Mountain Top Music Center in Conway, and the Odeon Youth Orchestra in Rockport. She is a cellist in Boston's Northshore Philharmonic Orchestra. She is now working on her second masters degree in music education as well as starting an adult community orchestra in the Rockport area.Other featured performers at the event include pianist Elizabeth Noonan, of Cumberland, with a solo performance of Klavierstuck No. 1 in E-Flat Major, D. 946 by Franz Schubert; tenor John Coons, of Corinna accompanied by Kathleen Scott, piano, singing two works by Igor Stravinsky and two by by Richard Strauss; pianist Shirin Hunold, of Gorham, performing Scherzo in B-flat Minor, Op. 31 by Frederic Chopin; pianist Claudia Tomsa, a native of Romania and now of Portland, performing three pieces by Maurice Ravel; Daniel Cyr, a bass-baritone from Bucksport, accompanied by Kathleen Scott, piano, performing three songs by Richard Wagner, and two works by Wolfgang A. Mozart; four songs composed by graduate composer Paul Thomas of Buxton, performed by soprano Stephanie Gilbert and accompanied by Maya Chapman on piano; and pianist Ian Scott, of Madison, Wisc., performing Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 by Ludwig van Beethoven.The showcase recital will be coordinated by faculty member Ellen Chickering. Admission is free. Call (207) 780-5555 for information.