All Fall Down

We’ve got a packed fall season in the Composition Department of the UNC School of the Arts.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, this is a campus of about 1200 students, all artists, from high school through graduate school.  Our composers have a ridiculous number of opportunities to write absolute music, music for film, for dance, for theater, installations – whatever they want to dive into, it’s here.

Here are some of the new music highlights for the next couple of months:

• September 2: GEORGIA O’KEEFE AND MUSIC – Phil Archer (Betsy Main Babcock Director of Interpretation at Reynolda House Museum of American Art) discusses connections between Georgia O’Keefe’s aesthetic and music, featuring performances of Katherine Hoover’s Kokopeli and Libby Larsen’s Black Birds, Red Hills.
• September 17, 19: WINSTON SALEM SYMPHONY – Robert Moody leads the orchestra in a performance of David Ott’s Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra.
• September 20: JENNIFER HIGDON – Composer joins us to discuss her opera Cold Mountain.
• September 23: AN AMERICAN INFLUENCE – Christopher James Lees conducts the UNCSA Symphony in a performance of Alan Fletcher’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggaiatore.
• September 28: NEW YORK REFLECTIONS – UNCSA Wind Ensemble performs Michael Daugherty’s Ladder to the Moon and the premiere of Derek Arnold’s An Offering to the A. I. Overlords.
• October 1: COLD MOUNTAIN – NC Opera production of Jennifer Higdon’s opera.
• October 3: BLACK MOUNTAIN TRIO – Faculty artists give NC premiere of Evan Chamber’s A Hundred Ways.
• October 11: BEETHOVEN’S SLIPPERS – Soprano Jennifer Trost performs Judith Cloud’s monodrama.
• October 13: JAMES ALLBRITTEN – Artistic Director of Piedmont Opera discusses contemporary opera and his upcoming production of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night.
• October 13, 14, 15: WINSTON SALEM SYMPHONY – Robert Moody leads the orchestra in a performance of James Stephenson’s Trumpet Concerto.
• October 27, 29, 31: SILENT NIGHT – Piedmont Opera production of Kevin Puts’ opera.
• November 3: THE EVOLUTION OF MINIMALISM – Saxophone students perform music by Louis Andriessen, Philip Glass, David Lang, Steve Reich and the premiere of Nicholas Karr’s Ripple.
• November 4, 5, 7: WINSTON SALEM SYMPHONY – Robert Moody leads the orchestra in a performance of Mason Bates’ Alternative Energy.
• November 9: ECSTATIC WATERS – Wind Ensemble performs James Stephenson’s The Storyteller and Rhythms of the Spirit as well as Steven Bryant’s Ecstatic Waters.
• November 10: KENNETH FRAZELLE – Composer discusses his new cycle Songs of Clay and Stone.
• November 11: CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER – Ongoing partnership with UNCSA, now in its third year, features a performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Trio.

There are other things coming up as well, some of them tentative, others still confidential.  Definitely enough to keep me busy, when I’m not traveling.