An oboe recital will be held tonight, featuring Edward Benyas, Orchestra Director for SIUC, and other faculty members playing a variety of music from classical to contemporary.

The faculty recital will also feature Michael Barta playing the viola, Anita Hutton on the piano and Jeanine Wagner as vocalist.

The first half of the concert will feature Meine Seele hort im Seben, by G.F. Handel, Incantation and Dance for Oboe and Piano, by W.G. Still and C. Saint-Saens’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano.

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The second half of the concert will feature Sarabande et Allegro for Oboe and Piano, by G. Grovlez and Mozart’s Trio in Eb Major for Oboe, Viola and Piano.

Benyas, assistant professor of oboe in the school of music, has been playing the oboe for more than 20 years, giving up his job as an attorney to pursue a career as a professional musician.

Music has a very special memory to me, he said. Just like an English professor who presents one of their papers, I feel the need to put on a concert.

Benyas said that many types of music will be played, ranging from early 18th Century to a more contemporary type with the piece by Still, one of America’s foremost African-American composers.

We wanted to do something to commemorate the anniversary of Still, he said. One of the things he is famous for is that he was the first African-American to have a piece played by a professional symphony, and this is something to celebrate that.

It’s a varied program that offers a nice variety for different people, with everything from classical to music with blues elements.

Hutton, an academic advisor in the College of Education, said this concert should display a wide variety of music to people.

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By playing a wider-range of music, we hope people will get a larger appreciation of different types of music, she said. It is also something good to do on a Wednesday night.

The concert is scheduled for 8 p.m. in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital hall. Admission is free.