Luther senior Craig to give the Richard C. and Joann M. Hemp Family Prize Recital

Luther College senior Charles Craig will give the Richard C. and Joann M. Hemp Family Prize Recital at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 18, in Luther’s Noble Recital Hall in Jenson-Noble Hall of Music. At Luther’s Homecoming concert last fall, Craig received the 2017 Hemp Family Prize.

A reception will follow the recital. The performance and reception are open to the public with no charge for admission.

Craig, son of Alan and Jolene Craig of Maquoketa, Iowa, is a 2014 graduate of Maquoketa Community High School. He is majoring in music and plans to attend graduate school to study orchestral clarinet after graduation from Luther.

The selections on the program include pieces by George Gershwin, a 20th century American composer of jazz and stage music, and Olivier Messiaen, a French 20th century composer and ornithologist. Craig will also perform compositions by Luther alumnus Pablo Gómez-Estévez and by German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms.

The Richard C. and Joann M. Hemp Family Prize for Orchestra Performance is given annually to a senior member of Luther’s College Symphony Orchestra. Craig is principal clarinet in the Luther College Concert Band and Symphony Orchestra, as well as a member of Norse Wind, a woodwind quintet. At Luther, Craig studies clarinet with Luther College Associate Professor of Music Michael Chesher.

Luther is home to one of the largest collegiate music programs in the nation, with six choirs, three orchestras, three bands, two jazz bands and more than 800 student musicians. Luther students participate in large ensembles, faculty-coached chamber groups, private lessons and master classes. Nearly 275 music majors study music theory, ear training, history, education, composition, jazz, church music and performance.