Jacobs School of Music's best set for D.C. concert

They’re the best of the best, and it’s earned them the right to travel more than 600 miles to the nation’s capital to perform their carefully tuned instruments and crisp melodies.

Eight students from the Jacobs School of Music will perform Tuesday in the Terrace Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

Their performance is part of the center’s Conservatory Project, which is “designed to present the best young musical artists in classical music, jazz, musical theater and opera from the nation’s leading undergraduate and graduate conservatories, colleges and universities,” according to a press release.

“We have the responsibility to bring something artistic to such a prestigious and well-known place,” said Andrew Marrs, a second-year master’s student who will play the piano.

The students were nominated and chosen based on recommendations from their music professors.

“I was surprised; I wasn’t expecting something like this,” Marrs said. “This will be the biggest concert I have ever played in.”

The concert will be free and open to the public. To make it easier for more people to watch, there will be a live stream starting at 6 p.m. on the Web. The broadcast can be accessed through the Kennedy Center’s Web site at www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium.

“I think the major difference will be the audience,” said Dana Booher, a second-year master’s student in saxophone performance. “There is going to be a large number of people there that haven’t heard us before. Also, (the performance) is on the Internet, so people that have never gotten a chance to hear me perform can.”

The Conservatory Projects slogan boasts, “Today’s Best Students ... Tomorrow’s Brightest Stars,” and the Jacobs School, consistently named as one of the leading music schools in the United States, has been asked back another year. This is the sixth year the school of music has been involved with the performance.

First-year master’s student Rose Armbrust will perform viola with her quartet of Jacobs students, violinists Bella Hristova and Danbi Um and cellist Yotam Baruch. They will be performing a piece by Claude Debussy.

“I am excited about the honor of just getting to perform there and representing IU,” Armbrust said.

While the students had the opportunity to pick their own music, most stuck with songs they have played in the past and were comfortable with. Marrs will be playing two works by Frederic Chopin.

“The songs I am playing are extremely compelling and have many elements that present quite a challenge,” Marrs said.

The Terrace Theater, where the students will be performing, seats slightly more than 500 people “for intimate performances of chamber music, ballet and contemporary dance, theater and family performances,” according to the Kennedy Center Web site.

“I am looking forward to the thrill of the performance and playing in such a wonderful venue that is so large and where people are interested in what I am playing,” Booher said.