MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at 847-491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

April 5, 2005

Northwestern Schedules Six "New Music" Events for Spring 2005

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The Northwestern University School of Music will launch a new season of contemporary music this spring with programming celebrating renowned and novice composers of our time.

One of the events -- the May 22 “New Music Marathon” -- is free. Ticket prices for each of the remaining programs, which will take place on the Evanston campus, are $6.50 for the general public; $4.50 for senior citizens and Northwestern faculty and staff; and $3.50 for students. To order tickets, call the Pick-Staiger Box Office at (847) 467-4000. For general information, call (847) 491-5441.

The season will begin with “Sounds in Space” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, at Regenstein Recital Hall, 60 Arts Circle Drive. Music faculty member Amy Williams has coordinated a concert of works for instruments with electronic sounds and images featuring works by faculty members Virgil Moorefield and Gary Kendall, and Northwestern music students Mark Cartwright, Jeffrey Weeter and Casey Farina. (Note: Due to illness composer and diffusion guru  Jonty Harrison will not be part of the April 10 “new music” program).

Northwestern’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Daniel J. Farris, will perform Igor Stravinsky’s “Ragtime,” Michael Daugherty’s “Snap!”, Leonard Bernstein’s “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” and selections by Frank Zappa at 7:30 p.m. Thursday April 21, at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive.

From 2 to 10 p.m.  Sunday, May 22, the annual “New Music Marathon” will host some of the world’s leading “new music” artists for eight continuous hours of performances at the University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, and neighboring Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Performers include bassist Robert Black, cellist Scott Kluksdahl, Northwestern marimba virtuoso Michael Burritt, the Ensemble dal niente in its Chicago debut, Italian flutist Mario Caroli performing Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Opera for Flute,” and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in works by Iannis Xenakis. Also performing will be School of Music faculty members and members of the ensemble “eighth blackbird” in works by Bang-on-a-Can’s David Lang, who will be in attendance. The evening will end in the Pick-Staiger lobby with a wild improvisation featuring more than a dozen guest performers and composers. Admission is free. For more information about venues and times, call Pick-Staiger at (847) 491-5441.

The “Student Composer Showcase” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 23, at Regenstein Recital Hall, will feature the “new music” International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and guest artists performing chamber works by Northwestern graduate and undergraduate composers. Music faculty member Amy Williams will coordinate the concert.

The Contemporary Music Ensemble’s “L.A. Stories: Works of Los Angeles Composers” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, will feature Donald Crockett’s “Whistling in the Dark,” Morten Lauridsen’s “Cuarto Canciones sobre Poesias de Federico Garcia Lorca,” William Kraft’s Concerto for Percussion and Chamber Ensemble and Stephen Hartke’s “Wulfstan at the Millennium.” Robert G. Hasty will conduct. The concert also will feature soprano Pamela Hinchman and percussionist Peter Zlotnick.

The final “new music “ event is the Percussion Ensemble’s performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 27, at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, directed by music faculty percussionist Michael Burritt and featuring Swedish vibraphone virtuoso and soloist Anders Astrand. Program highlights include the premiere of Astrand’s new work for solo vibraphone and percussion octet, as well as the “Peaux” movement from Xenakis’ “Pleiades,” and music by Kopetzki and Hollo.