Festival makes lots of music

WSU’s School of Music will present six concerts as part of the  Contemporary Music Festival featuring several WSU student ensembles, faculty performances, and works by various Wichita, WSU faculty, student and guest composers March 10-13. The concerts will showcase premieres of works by WSU music faculty and alumni, as well.

Virtually all faculty and students in the School of Music will be involved in the Contemporary Music Festival.

Featured guest Michael Daugherty has created a niche in the music world that is uniquely his own, composing concert music inspired by contemporary American popular culture. His Metropolis Symphony for orchestra and “Bizarro” for symphonic winds are a tribute to the Superman comics, recorded by conductor David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on Argo. The same performers recorded Daugherty’s “Desi” for symphonic winds on the Argo CD “Dance Mix.” His works commissioned and recorded on “Nonesuch” by the Kronos Quartet include “Elvis Everywhere” for three Elvis impersonators and string quartet and “Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover.” Daugherty’s opera “Jackie O” was premiered and recorded by the Houston Grand Opera for Argo. “American Icons,” an Argo CD devoted to Daugherty’s chamber music, has been recorded by the London Sinfonietta and Dogs of Desire.

Daugherty’s music has been performed by prominent orchestras and ensembles in the United States and abroad. He has received numerous awards for his music including recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Daugherty is with the music composition faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The concert schedule is: concert I - 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 10; concerts II and III - 1:30  & 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11; concerts IV and V - 1:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 12; and concert VI - 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 13. The March 10 performance is in Duerksen Fine Arts Center, Miller Concert Hall. The rest of the performances will be in Wiedemann Recital Hall. The afternoon concerts are free; the evening concerts are $3 general public; $2 senior citizens and non-WSU students; free to WSU faculty/staff and students with valid ID.

Concert I will feature music by Daugherty, Daniel Racer and Kyle Kindred. Concert II will feature music by Thea Musgrave, Katherine Murdock, Daniel Racer, Aaron Copland, and Alberto Ginastera. Concert III will feature music by Daugherty, Neal Corwell and Justin Writer. Concert IV will feature music by Vincent Persichetti, Shulamit Ran, Kyle Kindred and Kevin Bobo. Concert V will feature music by Witold Lutoslawski, Murdock, Karen Griebling, Kevin Oldham, Krzysztof Dzierma, George Gershwin and Luciano Berio. Concert VI will feature music by Timothy Kramer, Musgrave, Griebling, Theodore Davis and George Crumb.

Premieres will be Murdock’s three-movement work “Of Waters, Still and Falling” for viola and piano; Griebling’s  Piano Sonata and “Six Yeats Songs;” Bobo’s works for marimba; and Writer’s two-movement string quartet. Murdock is associate professor of music at WSU; Griebling teaches at Hendrix College, Conway, Ark.; Bobo is a former WSU student and nationally known marimbist; and Writer is a WSU graduate student in composition. Other WSU composition students who will have works played during the festival are Racer, Kindred and Davis.

Presentations by guest composers/musicians during the festival are free and open to the public.

Thursday, March 11, 9:30 a.m.       Daugherty, lecture, C-107 Duerksen                                                                       Fine Arts Center

Thursday, March 11, 10:30 a.m.     Daugherty, master class for composers,
                                                                       C-107     DFAC

Friday, March 12, 9:30 a.m.             Griebling, composer presentation, B-203
                                                                       DFAC

Friday, March 12, 10:30 a.m.           University of Kansas piano faculty member
                                                                        Richard Reber, performer presentation,
                                                                       B-203  DFAC