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Organist to perform on Jewell Artist Series Contact: Rob Eisele, 816-415-7574 March 29, 2010 Dr. Melody Turnquist-Steed will perform an organ recital at 4:30 p.m. April 18 in John Gano Memorial Chapel on the William Jewell College campus in Liberty, Mo. The Jewell Artist Series concert is free, and the public is invited to attend. Dr. Steed is assistant professor of music at Bethany College in Lindborg, Kan., where she teaches applied organ, music theory and church music. She also serves as chapel organist and coordinator of sacred music. A native Iowan, Dr. Steed received degrees in Organ Performance from the University of Northern Iowa, University of Cincinnati, and the University of Southern California. She has studied organ with Marilou Kratzenstein, Jesse Eschbach, Roberta Gary and Cherry Rhodes. Prior to her appointment at Bethany College, Dr. Steed served as organist at the Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, Calif. An active recitalist, she has been a featured performer at Regional and National Conventions of the American Guild of Organists. In January of 2006, she was a featured soloist for the National Public Radio program, Pipe Dreams Live!, performing Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 551. Along with trumpeter, Keith Benjamin, she performs as the trumpet/organ duo, Clarion. The duo has recorded two compact discs, Clarion, New Music for Trumpet and Organ (1994), and New Vintage (2001). Dr. Steed has performed both as an organ soloist and as a member of Clarion in Hungary and Romania. Included on the program will be works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and Louis Vierne. William Jewell College is committed to bringing together talented students and gifted faculty mentors within a vibrant community sparked by a rigorous and intentional liberal arts curriculum. A full range of personal and professional development experiences are presented by the selective national liberal arts college’s location within the Kansas City metroplex of more than two million.

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