http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTEmT6TL2iA
Korry Friend of Troy, Ohio, won the 27th annual A. Frank and Bethel C. Gallaher Memorial Music Performance Competition at Morehead State University. The award, presented each spring to a junior music major, includes a $1,000 cash prize and the honor of performing at the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ Academic Honors and Awards Convocation.
Friend is a percussionist and composer. He is a student of Dr. Brian S. Mason, associate professor of music.
He performed “Etude in e minor for marimba by Casey Cangelosi” as his competition piece.
During the Summer 2013, Friend attended Tianjin Normal University in Tianjin, China, where he studied Mandarin Chinese and the history and culture of China. His percussion career began during his years in high school performing with numerous community bands and university sponsored wind ensembles in and around Dayton, Ohio.
His collegiate career has afforded him multiple distinguished performing opportunities such as: Kentucky Music Educators Association Conference with the MSU Symphony Band; MSU Percussion Ensemble tour to Tianjin and Beijing, China; and KMEA Intercollegiate Orchestra. In his time as a percussion educator, he has taught numerous high school bands in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio.
The Gallaher competition, endowed in 1987, was named for the late Ashland businessman A. Frank Gallaher and his wife, who were the parents of Dr. Christopher Gallaher, former chair of MSU’s Department of Music.
All full-time junior level music majors, with at least a 2.75 grade point average, may compete for the Gallaher Scholarship. To participate, a student must perform from memory a work that is eight to 10 minutes in length. Preliminary auditions are held in December with the final competition in April.
Contributions to the A. Frank and Bethel C. Gallaher Memorial Music Performance Competition may be made through the MSU Foundation Inc., by calling 606-783-2033.
Additional information on the competition is available by calling the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance at 606-783-2473.