Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.—As Mississippi State prepares for its 2017 Charles H. Templeton Ragtime and Jazz Festival and the Gatsby Gala, Mississippi Public Broadcasting viewers have an opportunity this weekend to see excerpts of last year’s musical extravaganza.

An hour-long special to begin at 4 p.m. Sunday [Feb. 19], the selection of 2016 performances and interviews with four participating musicians will be presented in two 30-minute segments. Carried on MPB’s high-definition network, the closed-caption broadcasts are special productions of the university’s Television Center.

The popular festival is held on campus each spring semester. MSU Libraries and the Charles H. Templeton Sr. Music Museum, a major unit of the academic repository, are organizers of the multi-faceted event.

To be held March 30-April 1, the 2017 festival will include a first-ever appearance by Dan Levinson’s Roof Garden Jass Band, along with pianists and composers Brian Holland and Jeff Barnhart, both multiple-time performers in past years at the event. Daytime events take place in the Templeton Museum of Mitchell Memorial Library; evening concerts, the nearby McComas Hall main theater. For more, visit http://library.msstate.edu/festival/.

In addition to MSU Libraries and the university’s School of Human Sciences, this year’s sponsors include MaxxSouth Broadband, along with the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, Mississippi Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.

Admission tickets are available for advance purchase at https://library.msstate.edu/scalper/Index/Index/conference_id/12. Tickets also will be sold at the door.

MPB’s daily schedule is available at www.mpbonline.org/home/tv-schedule; the Sunday afternoon schedule, at http://pw.myersinfosys.com/mpb/hour?language=en&time_zone=America%2FChicago&month=2&day=19&year=2017&time=16%3A00. 

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.