February 19, 2004

Carter celebration planned

The School of Music will celebrate the 95th birthday of leading U.S. contemporary composer Elliott Carter with a concert of Carter’s music at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and a pre-concert screening of a related film at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art.

Elliott Carter

The “Elliott Carter 95th Birthday Celebration” will be held at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Feb. 19) at Pick-Staiger. The concert will be conducted by Jan Williams and Daniel J. Farris, and coordinated by faculty composer and pianist Amy Williams.

Carter’s groundbreaking Double Concerto will be performed by the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble and will feature harpsichordist Ursula Oppens, pianist Amy Williams and guest conductor Jan Williams.

Other Carter works on the program include his “Birthday Flourish” (1988); “Canonic Suite” (1981); “Voyage” (1943) featuring mezzo-soprano Malia Thompson and pianist Adam Swayne; “Night Fantasies” (1980) performed by pianist Winston Choi; “Wind Quintet” (1948) played by a student quintet; “Rhapsodic Musings” (2000) and “Fantasy – Remembering Roger” (1999) featuring violinist Minghuan Xu.

The 45-minute 1980 documentary film about the Double Concerto, “Elliott Carter at Buffalo” by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, will be screened at 6:15 p.m. at the Block Museum, in conjunction with the 7:30 p.m. “Elliott Carter 95th Birthday Celebration” at Pick-Staiger. In 1979, composer Elliott Carter flew to Buffalo, N.Y., to hear a group of first-rate musicians rehearse and perform his Double Concerto, a complex 1961 work for piano and harpsichord soloists with small orchestra. The film is a unique record of a concert performance and an informative look at the collaboration between musicians and a renowned composer. Several of the artists featured in the film and the post-screening concert will be present for discussion. For more information about the free Feb. 19 Block Cinema screening and talk, call the Block Museum at (847) 491-4000.

The screening and the celebration concert are sponsored by New Music Northwestern.

Single tickets for the concert are $6.50 for the general public; $4.50 for senior citizens and Northwestern faculty and staff; and $3.50 for full-time students. To order tickets by phone, call the Pick-Staiger Ticket Office at (847) 467-4000.