Ouachita Stories

Josh Bynum, trombone, will present a faculty recital with Kazuo Murakami from the University of Central Arkansas on piano on March 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University. They will also be accompanied by Kristin Grant, flute, and Lee Parham, percussion.

Josh Bynum currently serves as instructor of trombone and low brass at OBU and is principal trombonist of the Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra. He is a graduate of Jacksonville State University and Temple University. As a recipient of the prestigious Iowa Performance Fellowship, Bynum has finished all of the required coursework for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa. He is currently finishing his DMA Essay which analyzes the fundamentals of superior orchestral trombone section performance. 

Recently, Bynum has performed with both the Arkansas and Shreveport Symphonies. He has held positions with the Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Tuscaloosa and Gadsden Symphony Orchestras, was an associate member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has performed with groups such as the Joffrey Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Bay Atlantic and Haverford Symphony Orchestras. Additionally, Bynum has performed with numerous artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Elmar Oliveira, William Preucil, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Robert Browning, Sir James Galway and Henry Charles Smith.

Kazuo Murakami currently serves on the piano faculty at UCA. Before moving to Conway, he was on the faculty at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. He has performed both as a soloist and collaborative artist in recitals across the United States, Europe and Asia. Recent engagements include performances in Finland, Thailand, Hamburg and Singapore. Kazuo received his Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Mass. In addition to further study at the Cleveland Institute of Music, he has completed the coursework for the Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance and pedagogy degree at the University of Iowa.

Kristin Grant is an instructor of music OBU, and Lee Parham is a visiting instructor of music at OBU.

The recital will begin with Paul Creston’s “Fantasy,” followed by Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs: Long Time Ago, Simple Gifts, All the Little Horses and Zion’s Walls.” It continues with Enrique Crespo’s “Improvisations No. 1,” and then Henri Dutilleux’s “Choral, Cadence, et Fugato.” The recital concludes with Stephen Rush’s “Rebellion for Trombone, Piano, and Percussion.”

The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, contact OBU’s School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.

 

by OBU News Bureau