June in Buffalo new music festival set for June
"Music & Text" to be theme of annual conference dedicated to composers
By AMY
GREENAN
Reporter Contributor
"Music
& Text" whether as impetus, source, or languagewill be theme
of June in Buffalo, the annual festival and conference dedicated to
composers, being held June 3-8 in Slee and Baird halls, North Campus.
June
in Buffalo is presented by the Department of Music.
Providing
an extraordinary opportunity for composers to work with professional
musicians and a distinguished faculty, June in Buffalo offers an intensive
schedule of seminars, lectures, master classes, panel discussions and
open rehearsals, as well as afternoon workshop/performances and evening
concerts open to the general public and critics.
Each
of the invited composers will have one of his or her pieces read or
performed during an afternoon workshop presentation and will receive
a recording for future study and demonstration purposes. Performances
will feature resident ensembles and soloists who are renowned internationally
as interpreters of contemporary music.
Free
day time concerts will be presented in a workshop format and will feature
performances of works by emerging composers. Concerts to be presented
in the evenings, which will include performances of June in Buffalo
resident composers' works by June in Buffalo resident ensembles, will
be ticketed. Tickets for these concerts can be obtained from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Slee Hall box office, from noon
to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Center for the Arts box office
and at all Ticketmaster outlets.
Resident
composers for June in Buffalo will be David Felder, Birge-Cary Professor
of Composition at UB and artistic director of June in Buffalo since
1985; Pulitzer Prize-winner John Harbison; Jonathan Harvey, who has
a reputation of being one of the most skilled and imaginative composers
working in electronic music today; Philippe Manoury, who developed a
concept of "virtual scores," and Bernard Rands, a major figure in contemporary
music who has won the Pulitizer Prize and the Kennedy Center Friedheim
Award.
Performing
as resident ensembles will be the Baird Trio, featuring UB faculty members
Stephen Manes, Movses Pogossian and Jonathan Golove; the Meridian Arts
Ensemble, which has established itself as one of America's finest chamber
ensembles through its innovative, diverse repertoire and critically
acclaimed performances; the New York New Music Ensemble, which has emerged
as one of the world's premier 20th-century chamber music groups that
performs for both the specialist and the uninitiated audience; Quatuor
Bozzini, an award-winning string quartet dedicated to performing quartet
music of all kinds, and Slee Sinfonietta, the professional chamber orchestra-in-residence
at UB that performs a series of concerts each year dedicated to lesser-known
repertoire, particularly that of the pre-classic era and the most contemporary
music.
Appearing
as special guest artists for June in Buffalo will be soprano Tony Arnold,
the only vocalist ever to be awarded First Prize in the International
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competitionthe oldest and most important
competition for performers of contemporary music; Stephen and Frieda
Manes, who have been performing piano four hand music for almost 40
years to critical acclaim; Ian Pace, a pianist whose uncompromising
commitment to musical modernism and unique combination of intellectual
conceptualism and spontaneity in performance have won much admiration,
and Augusta Read Thomas, a member of the composition faculty at Northwestern
University and composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
until 2000.
The
schedule for June in Buffalo:
June
3
4 p.m. Baird Recital Hall Chamber Music. No admission
charge
8 p.m. Baird Recital Hall Ian Pace, piano. All tickets
are $5
June
4
4 p.m. Baird Recital Hall Solo Workshop and Tape/Electronics.
No admission charge
8 p.m. Slee Concert Hall Slee Sinfonietta with Tony Arnold,
soprano, and Ian Pace, piano. Tickets are $12, general; $9, UB faculty,
staff, alumni and senior citizens; $5, students
June
5
4 p.m. Baird Recital Hall Bozzini String Quartet. No admission
charge
8 p.m. Slee New York New Music Ensemble. Tickets are $12,
general; $9, UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; $5, students
June
6
4 p.m. B1 Slee Hall New York New Music Ensemble. No admission
charge
8 p.m. Slee Bozzini String Quartet. Tickets are $12, general;
$9, UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; $5, students
June
7
4 p.m. Baird Recital Hall Baird Trio. No admission charge
8 p.m. Slee Meridian Arts Ensemble (brass & percussion).
Tickets are $12, general; $9, UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens;
$5, student
June
8
9 a.m. Slee Meridian Arts Ensemble. No admission charge.