University of Wyoming Faculty Series Opens With Two Recitals

Two faculty recitals open the fall series Sept. 21 and Sept. 24 in the University of Wyoming’s Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

International award-winning Taiwanese pianist Edna Yuan-Yuan Chia opens the 2014-15 UW Faculty Recital Series at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21.

An active concert pianist, Chia has performed at numerous prestigious venues throughout the United States, Canada, China and Taiwan.

A native of Taiwan, Chia completed her music degree in piano performance at National Taiwan Normal University. She received both master’s of music and doctoral degrees in musical arts in piano performance from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Chia’s most recent teaching appointment is on the keyboard faculty at her alma mater. She also has appeared as a guest master class teacher at conservatories and universities around the world.

The second recital features jazz piano faculty member Ben Markley and guest guitarist Steve Kovalcheck at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24.

Markley is a visiting assistant professor of music and directs the UW Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble II and combos. He also teaches applied piano and improvisation and is the director of the UW Jazz Festival, which debuted March 2013.

Markley won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Young Jazz Composers Awards two years in a row and was selected to participate in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in New York City. He also was part of a trio that won the Promising Artists of the 21st Century competition at New York University.

Kovalcheck, originally from Nashville, is an active freelance jazz guitarist and composer in the northern Colorado region. He is a member of the jazz studies faculty at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

For more information, contact Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirskil@uwyo.edu.