SHEPHERD SCHOOL ALUMNA RETURNS AS PART OF ORGAN SERIES

Shepherd School of Music alumna Susan Soderstrom Matteson will return to Rice Friday, Nov. 14, to perform as part of the Marguerite and Jock Davidson Organ Series. Matteson is the first among the distinguished music school alumni to be featured as part of this organ series, which was inaugurated in February 2001.

Clyde Holloway, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Organ, under whom Matteson studied, said a series spotlighting Shepherd School alumni is the realization of a dream. "We are starting with the ones who studied here when the school was just beginning and who have continued performing in recital," Holloway said. "Those are the people who helped make the organ department of the Shepherd School what is it today."

After earning her bachelor of music degree in organ performance under Holloway at Indiana University, Matteson, along with Holloway and 12 other IU students, came to Rice in 1977. Here she earned her master of music degree in 1981, becoming one of the first recipients of an advanced degree in organ performance from the Shepherd School. She continued her doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music and has gone on to establish an admirable and critically acclaimed career as a performer, teacher and accompanist.

Matteson has performed nationally and internationally as an organ soloist, is an accomplished flautist and was a charter member of the Young Organists Cooperative, a national concert management agency promoting organ recitalists.

Since moving to the Atlanta area in 1996, Matteson has been active as an accompanist (University of Georgia, Metropolitan Atlanta Young Singers, Choral Society of Atlanta, Atlanta Youth Choir, Capitol City Opera and miscellaneous freelance engagements), church organist and studio teacher. From April 1997 until 1999, she held the position of director of music at Wesleyan School in Norcross, Ga., where she designed and began implementation of a comprehensive musical studies and performance program for grades K-12.

Matteson maintains a studio in her home for private lessons and is currently director of education and accompanist for the Atlanta Institute for Musicianship and Singing/Atlanta Youth Choir.

Matteson's performance will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall and Grand Organ, Alice Pratt Brown Hall. Admission is free; tickets are not required