CRIXUS, the U of A graduate student tuba quartet, heads out on tour as part of Music75. The quartet left Thursday, April 19, traveling from Fayetteville to Jonesboro making numerous stops along the 600-mile round-trip trek. Cody Hutchison (euphonium), Jordan Alimena (euphonium), Nicholas Liebl (tuba), and David Gonzalez (tuba), students of Benjamin Pierce, will give workshops and perform throughout northeast Arkansas. The tour is sponsored in part by funding from the Women's Giving Circle.

The Music75 initiative started in spring 2017 to bring our musicians, educators, and researchers to all 75 Arkansas counties, through music. So far, the department has visited 22 counties through the program, some counties with multiple visits. CRIXUS' tour will add four counties with six visits in just three days!

CRIXUS' efforts will include two nursing home visits (in Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County and in Harrisburg, Poinsett County), three school visits (Huntsville High, Madison County; Nettleton Junior High and Jonesboro High, Craighead County; and a recital at Arkansas State University (Jonesboro, Craighead County). The tour will conclude on Sunday as CRIXUS takes the stage at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center at 3 p.m. as part of the 2018 Music Honors Recital. The concert is free and open to the public.

The Department will continue its efforts to send students around the state. The faculty are delighted in the effort shown by so many of our students, include CRIXUS, for this initiative and look forward to great things to come through Music75. Thanks to the Women's Giving Cirlce, funds are available for our students to travel the state, many of whom return to their home towns to present recitals and workshops in the communities that started them in their music journies.