The University of Georgia Bands is proud to host the 60th annual January High School Festival January 21-24, 2010. This festival allows students from all over Georgia, and beyond, to improve their musical skills through auditions, honor and clinic bands, master classes and listening to guest bands perform.

1,050 students have been accepted to the Janfest Anniversary Festival for an all time high!

Tomorrow, January 20, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. in Edge Recital Hall, come enjoy voice recitals by UGA students Camille Grant and Meghan Taylor.

Admission is free and the public is invited.

One of the keys to building on the reputation of a great school is stellar recordings by its premier players and performers. This past june, Naxos released Millennium Cannons - Looking Forward, Looking Back, the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, conducted UGA director of bands John P. Lynch, premiering new and significant works by international composers.

Catch one of UGA's finest tonight at Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall as pianist Evgeny Rivkin takes the stage for our January 2nd Thursday Concert.

The program will include selected preludes and the Second sonata by Rachmaninov, as well as Pictures from an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

8 p.m., $15/$7UGA students with valid ID. UGA Performing Arts Center

Today beginning at 5 p.m., Edge Recital Hall features voice recitals from three UGA students: Megan Gillis, Rebecca Ware and Olivia Greene. Gillis and Greene were a part of the Falstaff chorus in the UGA production of the Verdi comedy this past fall.

This friday, January 15 at 8 p.m., UGA welcomes "Hogaku: New Sounds of Japan 2010" to Ramsey Hall in the Performing Arts Center. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Six of Japan’s top young musicians in Japanese traditional performing arts will give three performances of traditional Japanese music. Each showcase will feature a different instrument: the koto, a Japanese zither; the tsugaru-shamisen, a fretless lute from northern Japan; and Japanese drums.

Ronald Romm, widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent trumpeters and clinicians, will be on the UGA campus January 13-15 as a guest trumpet artist in the Hodgson School of Music. Romm will coach the graduate quintet, teach trumpet lessons, give two public master classes and perform a solo recital during the three-day visit, sponsored by the school of music.

Hodgson School of Music students Anna Baksheeva (violin), Joshua Teague (cello), and Liz Han (piano) will play in the MTNA regional competition at Samford University in Birmingham, AL on the weekend of the January 16. The trio, primarily coached by Despy Karlas Professor of Piano Richard Zimdars, will perform their competition program on Monday afternoon January 11 in Edge Recital Hall in the school of music at 3:35 p.m. The program includes music for trio by Ives, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Brahms. The performance is free and the public is invited.

2010 is the bicentennial of the birth of the Romantic composer, Robert Schumann. The Hodgson School of Music will have several events to commemorate this anniversary, including our 2nd Thursday concert in February, Schumanniad (February 11). In addition to being one of the most important composers of the 19th century, Schumann was an influential critic. Serving as editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik from its beginning in 1834 until 1844, he championed younger composers - Chopin and Brahms in particular.

Best wishes for a very Merry Holiday season from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

Get together with friends and family, stay in or go out, but listen to some music, make some music, share some music this holiday season. We're all better for it.

Look here for news and updates on events and performances at UGA in 2010.