DETROIT, MI - On Monday, Jan. 20, Delta Omicron Professional Music Fraternity and the Wayne State University Department of Music will present the ninth annual African American Composers Concert at 2:30 PM in the Schaver Music Recital Hall, located at 4841 Cass Ave. and Hancock in the Old Main Building. Admission is free and open to the public.

The concert is held in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and celebrates the culture of African Americans through music. Celeste Headlee, the granddaughter of renowned composer William Grant Still, will be giving a performance with Dr. Robert Conway. Dr. Conway is a distinguished pianist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Headlee, vocalist, is the Arts and Cultural reporter at WDET Radio. Other performers include Dennis J. Tini, jazz pianist and Annie Walker, soprano. The music contains a variety of styles composed by African Americans.

The Delta Theta Chapter of Delta Omicron Professional Music Fraternity has helped organize the concert for nine years. Starting as a student recital, the concert has grown over the years to feature performers such as renowned jazz artist Marcus Belgrave and renowned Metropolitan Opera tenor and WSU alumnus George Shirley, who is also a National Patron of Delta Omicron. In2002, the Delta Theta Chapter received two awards from the Professional Fraternity Association: the Outstanding Community Service Award and the Outstanding Professional Program Award. The latter was awarded for the chapter's organization of the African American Composers Concert.

Located in the heart of the Detroit Cultural Center, the Wayne State University Department of Music is celebrating 84 years of excellence in music. The Department's faculty includes renowned jazz artists, composers, scholars and members of the internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra. WSU alumni have gone on to careers in distinguished orchestras, ensembles and as soloists and music educators the world over.

For more information, please contact the Delta Theta Chapter at www.geocities.com/delta_theta_wsu or the Music Department at (313) 577-1795 or www.music.wayne.edu.