Blackwell to perform organ, piano selections at Music Study Club

Dr. Manley Blackwell, pianist, Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of West Alabama, will perform a program of organ and piano music for the final meeting of the Demopolis Music Study Club on Wednesday, May 11.

The program, which is open to the public, will begin a 4 p.m. in the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church, preceded by a social in the Fellowship Hall at 3:30 p.m. 

Blackwell’s selections will begin on the organ with Voluntary in A Major by Selby.  The remainder of the program will be played on the piano.  He will include “Allegro” from Sonata in B-flat, K. 333 by Mozart; Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118 No. 2 by Brahms; Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2 by Chopin, and Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 31 by Chopin.

At UWA Blackwell taught studio piano and academic courses in Music Theory, Music History and Introduction to Music from 1992 until his retirement in 2018. Since his retirement he has taught privately in his home and accompanies academic recitals for music majors at the University of Alabama. He is also an accomplished organist and plays weekly for St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Demopolis and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Livingston.

He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Piano Performance from Louisiana State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University.  His teachers include Barbara Fortenberry, Dr. Jack Guerry and Ralph Votapek.

Blackwell is president of the West Alabama Music Teachers Association. For the Alabama Music Teacher Association, he served several terms as Judges Coordinator and as Chair of the College Solo Auditions. He is a member of the Tuscaloosa Music Club and the Demopolis Music Study Club.