Released January 11, 2005

HATTIESBURG -- Dr. Dana Ragsdale, harpsichord, and Dr. Patricia Malone, oboe, will collaborate in a Southern Miss School of Music faculty recital Jan. 20, featuring a program of music by J. S. Bach, Couperin, Forqueray and Haydn.

A musically dynamic duo, Ragsdale and Malone have performed together for more than 20 years, including numerous faculty recitals on campus and throughout the southeastern United States. Both were founding members of the faculty Baroque ensemble Promenade and recorded a compact disc, "Music from the Court of Versailles," in 1997.

Ragsdale, professor of harpsichord and piano at Southern Miss, also directs Southern Arts Pro Musica, a group dedicated to the performance and study of early music. Having played her New York debut recital in 1977 in Weil Recital Hall, Ragsdale has been a guest artist for the Winterfest Concerts and the Fiati Chamber Players in New York City.

As a participant in the Performing Arts Touring Program (1986-1989) sponsored by the Southern Arts Federation, she has made numerous appearances at Piccolo Spoleto USA in Charleston, S.C., and has performed throughout the Midwest, including a solo recital on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts program in Chicago, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and at harpsichord festivals in Cincinnati.

Malone is professor of oboe at Southern Miss and serves as principal oboist with the Mobile and Meridian symphonies as well as the Mobile Opera Orchestra. She also has performed with the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Pensacola, Savannah and Florida Gulf Coast symphonies.

In May 2003, Malone was the featured soloist for the American premier of the recently re-orchestrated slow movement of Beethoven's "Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra" with the Mobile Symphony.

The 7:30 p.m. recital will be held at Parkway Heights United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg. Admission is free. For more information, call (601) 266-6945.

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