Our nu ensemble
had a fantastic concert last Saturday night: seven pieces from the last five years, all by composers between the ages of 23 and 45. The program:
Ted Hearne: But I Voted for Shirley Chisholm
Derek Arnold: Cook’s Wall
Cheyne Runnells: Mistakes Were Made
Donnacha Dennehy: That the Night Come
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
Dak Van Vranken: Hag
Stefan Freund: The Soldier Dances With Tom Sawyer
Three of the pieces were premieres of works by our students; the rest were offerings from some of the many intriguing young voices on the contemporary music scene. Great opportunity for our composers to measure themselves against the best, and for our performance majors to grapple with new idioms. Except for the string quartet by Caroline Shaw, all the pieces were for 7-16 instruments, handily batoned by Derek Arnold, Saxton Rose and Christopher James Lees.