Darka Miric Wins Guitar Festival Award
The two-day festival at the University of Southern Mississippi showcased some of the region's outstanding young performers, a number of instructors of classical guitar from the Magnolia State and outstanding guest artists.
"I think Darka is an incredibly accomplished guitarist as well as her sister, Tanja,'' said USM guitar professor Nicholas Ciraldo, the festival director. "She showed great poise at the festival.''
Darka Miric, who is due to graduate from MC Dec. 14, received a second-place award in the advanced classical guitar competition last Friday. There were 10 in the competition on the USM campus. Her twin sister, Tanja, an MC senior who attended the festival, won a first-place award at last year's event at Belhaven College in Jackson, but this time didn't compete against her sister.
The Miric sisters both studied under Hinds Community College guitar program director John Ingwerson when they were HCC students on the Raymond campus and after they earned HCC degrees. Ingwerson was one of the faculty members teaching at the USM festival. Belhaven College, Mississippi State University, Hinds Community College, and Meridian Community college joined USM's School of Music as the event's sponsors.
William Kanengiser, an award-winning member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and member of the guitar faculty at the University of Southern California since 1983, was featured as the festival's guest artist Thursday night. At his concert at Marsh Auditorium, his work ranged from dazzling classical arrangements of Mozart to modern up-tempo sounds of jazz and toe-tapping music from Spain.
The award for Darka Miric last week followed her induction at Mississippi College into the 2007"Who's Who'' among American college and university students. Her sister, Tanja, was also inducted into the prestigious group with 54 other MC students as President Lee Royce, other MC leaders and parents looked on. The Miric sisters say they plan to attend graduate school in the U.S. after receiving their MC degrees.
Both are presidential scholars, and members of Phi Theta Kappa, the national community college honor society and recipients of the B.J. Walden Memorial Scholarship in 2006. The sisters from Bosnia shared an award in 2006 when they were chosen as best collegiate duo and best overall in the collegiate division when they won the national ensemble competition in Texas.
The Miric twins are both music-guitar performance majors at MC and their future looks bright. Said Ingwerson: "They have represented Mississippi College very well in their chosen field.''
PICTURED (left-right): Tanja and Darka Miric
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