BEEGLE, NEW YORK VOCAL ARTS ENSEMBLE TO GIVE CONCERT AT USC

Raymond Beegle, artistic director of the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, will bring the group back to Los Angeles for an appearance next month at USC. In a concert benefiting the Koldofsky Graduate Fellowship in Accompanying, the ensemble will sing in Hancock Auditorium at 8 p.m. Feb. 11.

A pianist and vocal coach, Beegle, who studied with Gwendolyn Koldofsky of the USC School of Music, serves as pianist with his ensemble and creates its programs. The repertory consists, among other things, of forgotten works found in libraries from Warsaw to Buenos Aires and pieces commissioned from American composers. Beegle and the ensemble have given U.S. premiere performances of works by Cherubini, Rossini and Cesar Cui. Since Beegle founded the group in 1971, when he was on the faculty at State University of New York, Stony Brook, the ensemble has presented more than 700 concerts worldwide. It has recently returned from a tour of Eastern Europe under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.

Current members of the group are soprano Lise Messier, mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, tenor Gregory Mercer and baritone Paul Row.