The School of Music will showcase musical styles ranging from West Coast choral groups singing for peace to the mellow chamber jazz of vibraphone and marimba duo Senior Mouse during the 2003 Music Today Festival.
The event will be a weeklong series of performances by local, regional and international artists. The biennial festival is produced by the School of Music and organized by Professor Robert Kyr. Performances of student work will include the premieres of multiple graduate composers in Friday’s Oregon Composer’s Forum, which kicks off the festival at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, as well as performances throughout Saturday by the UO Chamber Choir and University Singers.
The festival’s theme is “Hope in a Time of War,” and will address the turbulent state of current events. In addition to introducing the diversity of modern music, the festival will highlight the role that music can play in promoting peace through this diversity.
School of Music Publicity Director Scott Parkhurst said audiences should not be put off by the event’s contemporary theme.
“People are nervous about coming to contemporary music events,” Parkhurst said. However, he added those fears are unfounded.
“A lot of contemporary music now is wonderfully creative and listenable,” Parkhurst said.
Contemporary music is an extremely diverse genre, often referring more to style then the actual composition of the pieces performed. For example, the internationally renowned Santa Fe Guitar Quartet will perform a set on Monday, including pieces by Béla Bartok and Bach.
The schedule also includes the premieres of more than 20 original pieces, most of which are composed by University students. Friday’s forum will be an opportunity for graduate students to take pieces labored tirelessly over in bedrooms and quiet practice rooms and introduce them to a live audience for the first time. Graduate student Erik Ferguson, who has performed more a dozen pieces, said he is looking forward to the festival.
“I am really excited,” he said.
The seven nights of performances by artists from multiple nationalities and continents are brought together largely due to the personal investment of Kyr. He introduced the first Music Today Festival soon after arriving at the University more than a decade ago.
“I wanted to bring music of our time to the region,” Kyr said. “The goal is to create a festival that will be as diverse as possible. We wanted to feature especially our student composers, and the 100th Monkey (an ensemble group performing on Tuesday) is entirely student run. We also have two groups from outside the region, both of which are internationally renowned.”
Kyr said this year’s festival also has special meaning due to the tumultuous state of international affairs. Kyr, who Parkhurst said has “long been an activist for peace” said he wants to emphasize the festival’s theme of hope in a time of war.
“These performances are meant to inspire and uplift,” Kyr said.
The event will include a special performance by local and San Francisco University choirs drawing on more than 700 pieces composed for the Waging Peace Through Singing project two years ago. The festival will also showcase a tribute to Lou Harrison, the famed composer who appeared as a composer-in-residence at the 2000 “Festival of the Millennium.” Harrison died last winter.
Whether music is a life’s passion, a tool for unity or an evening escape, Parkhurst said he invites students to attend what promises to be “a very listener-friendly festival with lots of beautiful music.”
He added that timing is important.
“Now more than ever, during this difficult period of war, it is important for artists to create and reach out to the public through music-making,” Kyr added. “Especially in the most challenging times, music, and particularly new music, inspires us to celebrate the forces of hope and creativity.”
Tickets will be available at the door, and prices vary for each performance. For a full schedule of events, visit http://music.uoregon.edu.