KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 16, 1999 -- Attention all classical music lovers! The University of Rhode Island is adding a summer Great Performances concert to its popular series. And there's an extra bonus that should be music to your financial ears. The concert, to be held on Friday, July 9, in URI's Fine Arts Center Recital Hall, will be free. The program begins at 8 p.m.

But here's the best part. The Anderson Quartet, the first African-American ensemble to win a major competition in the field of classical music, will be featured.

The program includes a sampling of the works of some of the greatest German composers. The Anderson Quartet will perform Mozart's Viola Quintet in G Minor K516 with Heather Wallace, a junior at Ithaca College and resident of Kingston.

Wallace will also perform three movements from a Bach suite on the viola solo and perform Brahms' Zwei Lieder with her mother, soprano Roxana Tourigny, coordinator of URI's Great Performance Series, and pianist Arlene Kies who is originally from Providence and currently teaches piano at the University of New Hampshire. Kies will perform Schubert's Impromptu solo and join Tourigny in performing Schumann's Frauenlieben und-leben.

Starting out as a chamber quartet in 1989, the Anderson Quartet changed its name in 1991 after gaining national recognition by winning the Eastman School of Music's Cleveland Quartet Competition. The quartet requested and received approval from legendary contralto Marian Anderson to use her name as its own.

The following year, the quartet was seen by millions of Americans during a live performance on ABC television's Good Morning America. The group has since performed in major U.S. concert halls and in festivals throughout Europe.

The quartet, currently Visiting Artists-in-Residence at California State University in Los Angeles, sees as its mission the creation of new and diverse audiences for the field of chamber music through personal interaction with its public.

Devoted to arts education, the quartet gives special concerts for young people in schools throughout the country under the auspices of such organizations as "Young Audiences" and the Aesthetic Education Institute.

For More Information: Jan Sawyer, 874-2116