**For Immediate Release**
Talent Takes Instructor Coast to Coast
-released by OPSU Campus Communications 07-07-06
Goodwell, Okla. — Oklahoma
Panhandle State University Music and Humanities Instructor
Tracey Gregg-Boothby continues professional development
every summer by participating in the Oregon Bach Festival
during the end of June and the first part of July. The
two week choral-orchestral event held every summer in
Eugene, Oregon, centers on the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach.
Gregg-Boothby auditioned for a spot in the choral section
of the Festival two years ago and participated for the
first time last summer. The continuing appointment also
gives her the opportunity to perform in special events
as they arise.
One of those special events occurred
in January 2005 when she sang in the chorus in New York
City’s Carnegie
Hall under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, the director
of the Oregon Bach Festival. The performance was the world
premiere of Mozart’s Mass in C minor, K. 427, a score
he never completed. Robert Levin, a world-renowned composer
and pianist, played musical sleuth and researched clues
in Augsburg, Vienna, Krakow and Berlin to piece together
the final product. Mozart wrote the Mass for himself and
his family rather than composing it on a commission from
the emperor or another sponsor. Scholars hail it as a different
work from his others, and Levin stresses that this Mass
truly represents art for art’s sake.
On Friday, June 30, the Carnegie Hall world premiere was
repeated in Eugene. Rilling once again conducted the Mass,
Levin gave a pre-concert lecture detailing his scholarly
research, and a number of those in the Oregon Bach Festival
Chorus and Orchestra, including Gregg-Boothby, performed
the music once more.
Gregg-Boothby’s enduring commitment
to her continuing education benefits her students, community,
and OPSU and also proves great talent from a rural area
does not go unrecognized.
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