NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release

Next I Medici Concert – Renaissance & Baroque Revisited, Montreal, March, 2, 2009

I Medici di McGill Orchestra continues its 20th season on Monday, March 23, at 8 pm with a public concert at Oscar Peterson Hall, Loyola Campus of Concordia University located at 7141 Sherbrooke West under its conductor Iwan Edwards.  This concert features Handel’s Water Music Suite and Concerto no.6 in Bb for harp with soloist Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, harpist of I Medici, Respighi’s Antiche arie ed dance per liuto, Suites 1 and 2, Vivaldi’s oboe concerto in C major, with the orchestra’s oboist Lara Srouji. Finishing  the evening, will be Britten’s Courtly Dances from “Gloriana”.

Lara Srouji began playing the clarinet at age 11 and switched to the oboe three years later. Originally from Virginia, she moved to Montreal in 2002 to study music with Ted Baskin.  She performed with the McGill Symphony Orchestra as principal oboe for many semesters and obtained a B.Mus. in Performance in 2007. Lara is currently finishing her degree in Physiology at McGill and will be attending medical school next fall.

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland began playing harp at the age of 8, attending the Manhattan School of Music Precollege and Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cornell University with degrees music cognition and music performance. She spent a year in Germany at the Institute for Music Physiology and Musician's Medicine in Hannover before pursuing a PhD at McGill University. She works with Dr. Robert Zatorre, investigating the anatomical correlates of music and linguistic learning.

Maestro Edwards has conducted I Medici di McGill since the year 2000.  He also directs Concerto Della Donna and the Montreal Children’s Choir. Formerly a professor at McGill University he recently retired from being music director (and founder) of the St. Lawrence Choir, MSO Choir, Ottawa Choral Society and the Canadian Chamber Choir.

I Medici di McGill was founded in 1989 by Dr. A. L. Padjen of McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.  The mission of I Medici is to provide musical content for various events in the life of the Faculty of Medicine, the University and the community and thus add a unique social dimension to medical education and to the profession.  The orchestra also plays during an annual lecture series on ‘’Music and Medicine’’.  I Medici is available for fundraising events.  The players come from the staff and students of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and the ensemble is completed by players from the community, upon invitation and audition.

The musicians of I Medici are all volunteers. Admission to all I Medici public concerts is free   but as there are costs associated with putting on each concert, a voluntary contribution of 10$ at  the door is strongly encouraged).  More information on the orchestra may be found on its website: http://www.imedici.mcgill.ca.

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Contact :
Ms. Julia Mlynarek, Communications, I Medici di McGill Orchestra
MSc Candidate, McGill University, Tel: (514) 398-7988, e-mail: julia.mlynarek@mail.mcgill.ca

Dr. A. L. Padjen, Director, I Medici di McGill Orchestra
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
McGill University, Tel : (514) 398-3603, e-mail : ante.padjen@mcgill.ca