Renowned composer, flutist and pianist Byron Petty will present “Casual Notes,” a program of recent compositions including several world premieres, at 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31 in Smith Recital Hall on Marshall University’s Huntington campus.

“A concert of music by a visiting composer lets you experience in a special way another’s musical thoughts,” said Dr. Wendell Dobbs, professor of music at Marshall, who is the organizer of and a performer on the concert. “And what’s special about these inner thoughts is they’re all hot off the press.”

Petty will be accompanied by guest artists from sister institutions and Marshall music faculty. Hornist Wallace Easter from Virginia Tech and classical guitarist Robert Trent from Radford University will accompany Petty and his wife, Dr. Shuko Watanabe, to Marshall to perform on the concert. Flutist Wendell Dobbs, soprano Linda Dobbs, hornist Stephen Lawson and pianist Pam Johnson from the Marshall music faculty will join them. In addition, two of Wendell Dobbs’ fifers from the John Marshall Fife and Drum Corps, Callie Huff and Laura Simpson, will join him in performing “River Crossing,” a four movement piece written especially for the Corps. “Casual Notes,” a new flute duet for which the concert is named, will be premiered by Petty and Wendell Dobbs.

A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Petty was trained as a flutist, studying with longtime principal of the Baltimore Symphony Britton Johnson. After graduation, Petty toured throughout the eastern U.S. and Japan with Watanabe, his classmate and wife. Currently, Petty and his wife both teach at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.

Petty’s experiments as a composer, which began at Peabody, continued to grow until now composition occupies most of his time. The Virginia Music Teachers Association, K. & W. Group Inc., Olin Conservation Inc., the Department of Geology of Virginia Polytechnical Institute, and the Toho Koto Society of Washington, D.C., have commissioned new works by him. Recent compositional performances and premieres include “Before It Happens” for clarinet and orchestra, performed by the Sweet Briar College Chamber Orchestra; “From the Helm” for flute and piano, by the Ardo Duo at the New Horizons Concerts of New Music, Radford University; “Ach! How to be!” for voice, violin, and clarinet, by the Ardo Consort at Washington and Lee University; “Rokudan” for koto and orchestra, with the DC Youth Orchestra and the Washington Toho Koto Society at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Maryland; “Gestures from the Bridge” for orchestra, performed by the Eurydice Community Orchestra of Roanoke, Va.; and “Moon Shadows” for small orchestra, by the Elon University Orchestra in Elon, N.C.

“Byron’s music spans the emotional gamut,” Wendell Dobbs added. “At times it’s dark and rhythmically angular, and then, all of a sudden, jocular, light-hearted and witty.”

Petty also will talk about his music at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1, also in Smith Recital Hall. Both events are free and open to the public. Contact the Marshall University Department of Music at 304-696-3117 for more information.