Students who won the University of Memphis fall solo competition will be performing solos from their own selected pieces accompanied by the University of Memphis Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 17.
Professor Pu-Qi Jiang and doctoral student Kevin Suetterlin will conduct this year's annual concert.
"We have 80 friends sitting on stage, all doing something very special," Suetterlin, who moved from Germany a year and a half ago to continue his studies at the U of M, said. "I'm very grateful for that, not many people get to do that for their job."
Suetterlin, who had worked for several orchestras throughout Switzerland, said that he had quit his jobs in Europe to come study in Memphis, where he has conducted several concerts.
"Back in the day, conductors were dictators, sometimes frightening their orchestras. I'm glad all of that is really outdated and old fashioned now," Suetterlin said. "I think a conductor is never higher than any of the other musicians, because every person on stage has extraordinary training and are all excellent musicians."
The student-conductor started out by learning piano and singing before following his goals as a conductor. He said he discovered his passion by the time he was 12 years old, which was when he started forming and conducting ensembles made up of classmates.
"As a conductor, you get to bring all of these musicians together. You have 80 people with amazing individual ideas and you have the honorable task of making one convincing interpretation," Suetterlin said.
Clarinet-player Marcelo Maldonado, cello-player Nathan Cottrell and euphonium-player Geoff Durbin were chosen last fall for the concert by three international judges not affiliated with the U of M.
"I choose the piece I did because it is one of my favorite concertos, it's very modern and unusual. It has a lot of whole-tone scales, which are typically a little harder to perform. It just has a unique sound," Durbin, who is performing John Steven's Euphonium Concerto, said.
Each soloist will perform his selected piece, each ranging from 10 to 14 minutes, throughout the beginning of the concert. After the soloists have finished, the orchestra will perform a 20-minute piece that will serve as the big finale, which will be Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy."
"After the soloist's pieces are done, we have one big last orchestral piece, last year it was Britten's 'Young Persons Guide,' this year I'm conducting the same section of the concert," Suetterlin said.
Durbin also won the gold medal in the 2013 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium Artist Competition, a prestigious, worldwide competition for tuba and euphonium performers. Although this was Durbin's first time winning, he had been selected for the top-10 competitors four times since 2008.
"The competition was open to anyone in the world who does not have a full-time position playing music, whether teaching or performing within an ensemble," Durbin said. "Winning, let alone being selected was a huge honor."
Durbin, who transferred from Indiana University of Pennsylvania to pursue his doctorate at Memphis, said the U of M has been a great step in his career path.
"I was very nervous to move here at first, but this University has been exactly what I needed it to be," Durbin said. "I've gotten good teaching experience, as well as great performance experience."
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Harris Concert Hall at 3755 Central Ave., and will cost $15 for general admission, $10 for non-U of M students and high school seniors and free for all U of M students, faculty and staff with a valid ID.
"Come to the concert. It's going to be a great evening with very different types of music," Suetterlin said. "You'll get to see some very special things."
