Mississippi College Students Win Awards for Piano Performances

Professor Angie Willoughby, students Maleesa Brenchley, Mary Catherine McKibben, Robby Blaine, Christa Morgan and Professor Michael Rushing

Mississippi College students turned in award-winning performances at statewide competition in Jackson.

Four MC students entered the Mississippi Music Teachers Association Collegiate Spring Competition on Saturday at Belhaven University.

Earning first-place honors in the freshman/sophomore solo division was MC sophomore Robby Blaine, a piano performance major from Greenwood.

Mary Catherine McKibben received a second-place award for the junior/senior solo division. McKibben is an MC junior and piano performance major from Starkville. Honorable mention in the freshman/sophomore solo division went to Jackson resident Christa Morgan, an MC sophomore and music education major with a piano emphasis.

Mississippi College music professor Angie Willoughby and Michael Rushing are longtime members of the sponsoring group, the Mississippi Music Teachers Association.

They’re both proud of the MC student winners and others who competed from the Christian university.

Maleesa Brenchley, a sophomore piano performance major from Skopje, Macedonia, did very well with her 12-minute Mendelssohn piece on piano, but didn’t received an award.

“All in all, it was a very good day for us,” Willoughby said Monday. A gifted pianist, she joins colleagues in the Department of Music congratulating all of the MC students for their splendid performances.

The annual event is open to musically talented collegians from across the state. The music runs the gamut from jazz ensembles to solo piano performances and vocals.

The organization got started in 1954 when a small group of music teachers convened at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, and the group held its first meeting in Jackson in 1955. MC students regularly compete in the competition.

Rushing serves as treasurer of the organization. Willoughby chairs the group’s college faculty forum. MC music professor Benjamin Williams chairs its theory and composition committee.

For additional information, contact Angie Willoughby at willough@mc.edu or 601.925.3444.