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Festival of Fine Arts holds 43rd season opener

LAKELAND, Fla. (Sept. 19, 2002) - Florida Southern College opens its 43rd Festival of Fine Arts season Oct. 3 with a program of music to honor composers' anniversaries. The opening performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Branscomb Auditorium on the college campus. 

The ensembles and soloists of the music department will be commemorating the birth and/or death anniversaries of famous composers, with special emphasis on American composer Richard Rodgers, who was born in 1902. "With over 900 published songs to his credit and some forty musicals for both stage and screen, Rodgers is one of our country's most prolific composers of all time," said Robert MacDonald, the festival's director. Rodgers' well known works will be performed by the Florida Southern Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, as well as by the College Chorale. A special feature of the program will be a group of Rodgers songs performed by the music department's newest artist faculty member, Dr. John Thomasson, along with mezzo-soprano Diane Stahl and accompaniment by MacDonald, FSC's pianist-in-residence. 

Tickets are $15. FSC students are admitted free of charge; non-FSC students admitted at half price. For ticket information, please contact the Branscomb Auditorium box office at (863) 680-4296. 

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world. 

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