School of Music, in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona

The UA School of Music Faculty Artist Series presents a recital featuring Mark Rush, Tannis Gibson and Norman Weinberg. The performance will present an all-American program with works by Lucas Foss, William Bolcom, Aaron Copland and UA faculty member composer Craig Walsh.

The performance will mark the world premiere of Walsh's "Pointing Out Your Ruse." This work was composed in response to a commission from the Astrobiology and the Arts program at the UA. The piece was written for violinist Mark Rush and percussionist Norm Weinberg and features an elaborate percussion setup and virtuoso writing for both performers.

Rush is associate professor of violin at the UA and is currently on the faculty of the Killington Summer School, Vermont. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and later studied in Brussels with Arthur Grumiaux as a Fulbright scholar. Rush has appeared in major concert halls throughout the U.S. including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has recorded for ASV-London and CRI.

His recent concerts include a chamber music collaboration with Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe. He recently toured China with Eastman School of Music faculty performers.

Gibson, assistant professor of piano at the UA, is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Sascha Gorodnitzki. She has appeared in concert throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in France, Belgium, Spain and, more recently, China. She has recorded for CRI, ASV of London and Summit. Gibson was on the music faculty at the University of Virginia from 1984 to 1994. Recently, she appeared as soloist with the French Woods Festival Orchestra (NY), in recital with cellist Nancy Green at the National Gallery of Art Series (Washington, D.C.) and at Merkin Hall (NY) in a concert of music by UA School of Music faculty member Daniel Asia.

Weinberg is a UA professor of music and coordinator of percussion technology. He has served as the principal timpanist/principal percussionist with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and as principal timpanist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra and the Leonard Bernstein Festival Orchestra. Currently he performs with the Arizona Opera and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Weinberg has presented seminars at many regional, national and international conventions in the US, Canada and England. A prolific author, Weinberg has published over 250 articles in renowned journals. In addition, he has several compositions published by Southern Music Corporation. His text, “The Electronic Drummer,” is part of the Modern Drummer Library and his most recent book, “Guide to Standardized Drumset Notation,” has set a worldwide standard and is published by the Percussive Arts Society. He has been awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate from Indiana University, where he received the master of music degree in percussion performance with honors and the doctor of musical arts degree. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist, a Zildjian Educational Clinician and is endorsed by Vic Firth and Remo.

Walsh is an assistant professor of music at the UA. He has received numerous awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lee Ettelson Composers Award, the Luigi-Russolo International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition and the Siday Prize from the International Computer Music Association. Walsh's acoustic and electro-acoustic compositions have been performed throughout the U.S. and abroad at festivals and conferences including the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the International Computer Music Conference, the Australasian Computer Music Conference, the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, the Korean Computer Music Festival, Third Practice Electronic Music Festival, the Empyrean Ensemble, Bourges Festival of Electronic Music and the College Music Society. His music is recorded on the SEAMUS, Luigi Russolo and Centaur labels. Walsh received his bachelor of music degree in composition from the Mannes College of Music and his M.F.A. and doctorate in composition and theory from Brandeis University.