The University Music Today Festival begins Friday at Beall Hall, and will include four performances spanning five days. The concert series will feature a celebration in contemporary music.
“These days composers are at a crossroads of weaving stylistic realms of classical music and their own vision,” Publications and Marketing Director for the music department Scott
Barkhurst said about this year’s title, “Contemporary Crossroads II.”
The festival has been a project of the School of Music and Dance for 15 years. It is usually performed every other year, but this festival was divided into two shorter performances; the first was held in November, Barkhurst said.
Robert Kyr, festival director and head of the music school’s composition program, said the concert series will feature “some of the most exciting new directions being taken by artists in the new millennium,” in a press release.
The four performances in the series will be held at Beall Hall, in the School of Music building, at 8 p.m. Tickets prices are $8 for students and $10 general admission (except for Tuesday’s performance, which is $5 for students and $7 general admission).
University graduate Joe Powers will open the concert series tonight with tenor/guitarist Lewis Childs in their “Celebrating a World of Music” program.
Powers, an internationally acclaimed harmonica player, “taught at the Harmonica Institute in Amsterdam and was a semifinalist in Belgium’s 2006 international harmonica competition,” according to his Web site.
The performance will showcase everything from a tango waltz to a traditional Yiddish wedding song and a Japanese folk medley.
“He’s really made a name for himself since graduation,” Barkhurst said. “The word eclectic really applies to him.”
Tango dancers will accompany the Powers-Childs duo, perhaps inspired by Powers’ performance at the 2006 World Tango Championships in Paris.
Saturday’s performance includes vocalists Phil and Ellen Frohnmayer in “A Euro-American Vocal Journey,” featuring a mix of classical music, such as Mozart and Brahms, with a mix of 20th century music.
“For anyone who is a fan of vocal music, this is delicious,” Barkhurst said.
Phil, who received a master’s from the University’s School of Music, is the brother of University President Dave Frohnmayer.
Phil and Ellen Frohnmayer are professors at Loyola University in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina they were visiting professors at the University.
“We are delighted to welcome them back for this occasion, which promises to be a highlight of this season’s vocal concerts,” Kyr said in the programs brochure.
The festival will continue with the So Percussion Ensemble’s program titled “Celebrating Steve Reich at 70!”
“This is the event for people who are really looking for a little adventure,” Barkhurst said.
The ensemble, which has been called “brilliant” by The New York Times, follows the philosophy: “If you’re sick of the sounds you’ve got, you go and find more. There’s always something to hit or rub, or whatever.”
After a festival break on Monday, performances will continue Tuesday night with the University ensemble Pacific Rim Gamelan, performing “New Music for World Orchestra.”
A gamelan is a 15-member ensemble of Indonesian origin. The group’s signature metallic rhythms are created with metal xylophones, gongs and drums.
In addition to performing, the University ensemble has composed music that will be performed by the So Percussion Ensemble.
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