Friends of Music

The Friends of Music Society of Kennett will continue its 2009-2010 season with a concert featuring the husband and wife piano duo, Jon and Mia Hynes, on Saturday, May 1.

The performance will be held at 7 p.m., at the First United Methodist Church of Kennett, located at the junction of College and Washington Streets.

The program will include works by Johannes Brahms (several Hungarian Rhapsodies) and Claude Debussy ("Petite Suite") and American composers Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin ("Rhapsody in Blue," arranged by Henry Levine), and William Hirtz.

Mia Hynes

Jon Hynes is a prize-winning pianist of several competitions, including the gold medal of the Nina Wideman Competition, the Eastman Concerto Competition, and the Young Keyboard Artists International Competition. Recent performances include the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) Convention in Novi Sad, Serbia, the Eglise International in Paris, France, the International Conference on the Arts and Humanities in Hawaii, at Boccarelli Auditorium in St. Paulo Brazil, and alongside his wife at Steinway Hall in New York City. Dr. Hynes spent two years at the Paris Conservatory before completing his Doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. He is a Little Rock, Ark., native and is currently the Director of the School of Fine Arts in the Arkansas Baptist School System. He is a frequent adjudicator, lecturer, and clinician throughout the United States. His piano students are equally successful, having won over $275,000 in competition prizes and university scholarships.

A native of Bloomington, Ind., Mia Hynes made her professional debut with the Indianapolis Symphony at the age of 12. Since then she has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and beyond, including appearances on National Public Radio's Performance Today, at the Chautauqua Music Festival, the Rocky Ridge Music Festival, the Library of Congress Coolidge Recital Series, the Dag Hammerskjold Library at the United Nations, Steinway Hall (NYC), and the Kansas City Summerfest Chamber Music Festival. Recital collaborators include Scott Yoo, violinist and conductor of the Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble; Sam Pilafian, founding member of Empire Brass; David Halen, concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony; Daniel Lee, principal cellist of the St. Louis Symphony; Gary Schutza, principal trumpet of the Kansas City Symphony; and Mary Ann Hart, mezzo-soprano, head of the Voice/Opera Department of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Dr. Hynes received the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with (and served as teaching assistant to) Nelita True. Dr. Hynes also holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, where she studied with Menahem Pressler and served on the teaching staff of the Young Pianists Program.

Dr. Hynes has been a member of the faculty of University of Central Missouri since 1996, where she is currently Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy and Director of the Community Music Program. A Life Member of the National Federation of Music Clubs, she is a past state president of the Missouri Federation of Music Clubs, and she was the winner of the 1995 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Auditions and the 1991 National Federation of Music Clubs Student Auditions. She was the director of the Warrensburg Area Youth Symphony from 1997-2002, and is a founding member of the Warrensburg Friends of Music.

The performance will be admission free, and is expected to last about one hour. The public is cordially invited.