Hartsville, SC - The Hartsville-Coker Concert Association presents achamber music concert celebrating the Coker College centennial with Charles Wadsworth and Friends on Thursday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center.

Admission is $20 for adults, $7 for students and children under 18, and free with Coker College ID. Tickets will be available at the door or in advance at the Great Hartsville Chamber of Commerce.

The concert will showcase selected works from a range of composers, including the world premiere of  Kenji Bunch’s “Work for Piano, Violin and Cello.” The program also includes Haydn’s “Trio in G major for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 53, No. 1,” Bizet’s “Selections from ‘Children’s Games’ for Piano, four-hands, Op. 22,” and Brahms’s “Quartet in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 25.”

Wadsworth is an artistic director for the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston and the founder of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, which he led for 20 seasons. He has received numerous honors and awards, including an Emmy for a 1986 broadcast of “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Handel Medallion (New York City’s highest cultural honor), and the Chamber Music America Award for significant contributions in the development of chamber music in the United States.

France named Wadsworth a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters, and Italy awarded him the Cavaliere Ufficale of the Order of Merit. His legendary career of countless worldwide performances includes concerts at the White House for every president from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan.

Joining Wadsworth on stage at Coker College will be pianist Erika Nickrenz, cellist Edward Arron, violinist Jesse Milles, and composer-violist Kenji Bunch

Nickrenz is a former member of Eroica Trio. A successful recording artist, Nickrenz  has toured world-wide and appeared in many festivals, including the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, Ravinia, Aspen, Interlochen,  Mostly Mozart, Hollywood Bowl, and Tanglewood, where she received the prestigious Rockefeller Award..

Arron is in his fifth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert and was previously the administrator and resident performer for a weekly radio program dedicated to chamber music. He is also the artistic director of the Caramoor Virtuosi and of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado.

Bunch has been named “A Composer to Watch” by the New York Times. His works have been performed in premiere venues from New York to Ho Chi Minh City, and his music is  regularly broadcast on NPR and BBC Radio. Bunch teaches at the Juilliard School Pre-College.

Grammy-nominated Mills made his professional concert debut in 2004 with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. As a chamber musician he has performed at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Marlboro Music Festival, among others. He is a past winner of the E. Nakamichi Violin Concerto Competition and co-founder of Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo.

Throughout 2008, Coker College is marking its centennial with a series of events celebrating the Coker experience. For more information, call 843-383-8018 or visit www.coker.edu/100.

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