Release date: September 10, 2007
Award-winning guitarist to perform at KSU
Contact: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Assistant Director of Public Relations
770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
KENNESAW, Ga.—Classical guitarist Mary Akerman will perform a recital in Kennesaw State University’s new Performance Center at 3 p.m. on Sept. 30. Her program will include two works by Isaac Albéniz, which have been transcribed from piano for the guitar, “Through the Halocline” by Matthew Dunne, which he composed specifically for Akerman, as well as other classical guitar compositions.
Akerman is a winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America Competition, the Casa de Espana of Puerto Rico Competition, and also won a medal in the Concours International Radio France. She has taught master classes at several festivals in the United States and abroad, and she has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Festival Singers and on NPR’s Performance Today. Recently, Akerman was elected chairperson of the advisory board for the Guitar Foundation of America. She also plans to start work on a recording project over the next few months. Akerman is an assistant professor of guitar at Kennesaw State.
Akerman first developed an interest in playing classical guitar at the age of 13 when her father brought home an LP of Andres Segovia, who Akerman considers the “father of modern classical guitar.” One of the highlights of Akerman’s tutelage was when she had the privilege of taking a master class from Segovia, who was 94 years old at the time. Akerman also studied classical guitar at the University of Georgia and Florida State University.
Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the KSU Box Office at 770-423-6650.
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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive‚ residential institution with a growing student population approaching 20‚000 from 132 countries. The third largest state university in Georgia‚ Kennesaw State offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degrees‚ including a new Doctorate of Education in Leadership.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.