Southwestern College will host several Cole Family Summer Music Festival concerts June 10-14.  All performances are free to attend and community members are invited to any or all of the concerts.

• Tuesday, June 10, 7:30 p.m.—Counselors and Southwestern College ambassadors will perform inside Richardson Performing Arts Center.  From as far away as St. Louis and as close as Winfield, the performers will present a program in a variety of genres.   Musical theatre, classical, and jazz make up the enjoyable program demonstrating the talent of those who influence and teach the festival participants.

• Wednesday, June 11, 7:30 p.m.—Mary Bander, young artist in residence, and Chase Foster, Winfield High School graduate, will perform in the Richardson Performing Arts Center.  Bander is a graduate of the department of music at Oklahoma Christian University, having majored in vocal performance.  She has performed in several OCU opera productions including “Les Contes D’Hoffmann,” “Il Pagliacci,” “Dido & Aeneas,” “L’elisir D’amor, Gallantry,” “Riders to the Sea,” and “Die Fledermaus.” Her residency is sponsored by George Cole.  Foster has been performing professionally for the better part of eight years and has now begun to start his solo career as a pop/jazz artist. Through the years, Foster has had a musical exploration in country, jazz, rock, pop, and blues genres, and has been heavily influenced by a number of great songwriters. He now performs regularly as a solo artist, and is continuing to build his song catalog.

• Thursday, June 12, 7:30 p.m.—The Cole Family Summer Music Festival faculty and assistant faculty will perform a recital in the Richardson Performing Arts Center.  Stephen Butler, Jeremy Kirk, Timothy Shook, and Daniel Stevens plus Winfield High School faculty member Matt Berthot along with their faculty assistants will present solos, piano duets, and ensembles.

• Saturday, June 14—Numerous events will be held as the camp closes down.  Ensembles and solos are scheduled throughout the afternoon.  From 1-1:55 p.m., vocal and piano solos and ensembles with chamber groups in Messenger Recital Hall in the Darbeth Fine Arts Center.  From 2-2:55 p.m., band and string orchestra in Richardson Performing Arts Center.  From 3-3:25 p.m., African drum and dance and jazz combo at the Cole Mound Plaza.

• Saturday, June 14, 4-5:30 p.m.—All festival members of the orchestra, choir, and concert band with guest conductor Steven Barnett will provide a grand performance in the Richardson Performing Arts Center to conclude the 2014 Cole Family Summer Music Festival.    Barnett is in his 11th year as director of bands and professor of music at Marshall University.  He conducts the Marshall University Wind Symphony and the “Marching Thunder” marching band, where he also serves as music arranger and drill designer.  He is an active adjudicator and clinician throughout the Southeast and Midwest and is currently a staff arranger for Jalen Publishing Company of Orlando, Fla., where he has 15 marching band arrangements published. 

For more information about any of the performances, call Jessica Falk at (620) 229-6141.