The Modesto Junior College Friends of Music series will present “An Evening with Dr. Steven Laitz” on Wednesday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the MJC Music Recital Hall on East Campus, 435 College Ave., Modesto.

Laitz, chair of music theory and analysis at the Juilliard School in New York City, will offer a lecture - demonstration to discuss musical analysis and performance: ‘The Musical Score: Discovering What Composers Do Beneath a Work’s Surface.’

“This is a rare opportunity to see one of the world’s leaders in the field of music theory and interpretation,” said Alejandro Sabre, professor of music at MJC. “Steve was my teacher and mentor for several years at the Eastman School, and he is able to illustrate the relationship between analysis and performance in a captivating way that is at once highly musical and really entertaining.”

Sabre will join Laitz on stage to perform several works on the piano.

Laitz served as faculty member at Eastman’s Music Theory Department from 1989 to 2015 and chaired the department in 2001-2007. From 2002–2011, he served at Eastman’s Chamber Music Department where he offered courses including the String Quartets of Bartok, which he co-taught with the Ying Quartet, and in 2012 co-taught with Robert Swensen a course on German Lieder.

Since 2008, Laitz has been invited to present lectures, workshops, and lecture recitals at institutions around the world. In 2009 he toured four Chinese conservatories as part of Eastman’s “China Connection,” including Xinghai Conservatory (Guangzhou), XiAn Conservatory, and China Conservatory and Ren-Min University (both in Beijing) where he lectured both on music theory pedagogy and on analysis and performance.

From 2001 to the present he has been actively involved in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, first as a member of the editorial review board, then as reviews editor, and since 2009 as editor in chief of the journal. Since 2011, Laitz has served as executive editor of Music Theory Pedagogy Online. In 2013, Laitz was appointed director of the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Center for Music Theory Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma.

Tickets for An Evening with Steven Laitz are $15 general admission and $5 for students and seniors (62 and better). Tickets are available at the MJC Auditorium Box Office, open Tuesday through Friday, from noon to 5 p.m. or by calling 575-6776 during Box Office hours, and are available online at www.mjc.tix.com. Tickets will also be available at the door beginning 90 minutes prior to the performance in the Music Recital Hall.

This event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the MJC Foundation. Proceeds from Friends of Music events are used to support the programs of the MJC Music Department and provide music student scholarships.