The History of June in Buffalo, 1975-2000

The June in Buffalo Festival and Conference was founded at the University at Buffalo by UB Professor Morton Feldman in 1975, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts, as well as the University at Buffalo.

The festival was the first dedicated to both the emerging composer and to the exposure of new music around the world. June in Buffalo serves the new composer in ways that other festivals and academic programs cannot, and has earned an international reputation among composers and performers.

Activities specifically designed for younger composers focus on the presentation of their work and include an intensive interaction with a distinguished group of senior composers, extraordinary musicians and performance ensembles, as well as professional representatives of performance-rights organizations, publishers and music critics.

The series of afternoon and evening concerts feature the work of both the emerging and senior composers and is an important focal point of June in Buffalo for the young composer, the performers and the general audience. Each work is thoroughly prepared by exemplary, professional performers of new music, presented in a reviewed concert and recorded for study, archival and broadcast demonstration purposes.

To date, more than 300 new composers have been served via June in Buffalo. Previous festivals have included representation from 49 states and 16 countries.

Participating senior composers have included such luminaries as Feldman, Milton Babbitt, Steve Rosenthal, Lukas Foss, Jacob Druckman, Roger Reynolds, Earle Brown, Harvey Sollberger, Lejaren Hiller, Donald Erb, Brian Ferneyhough, Stephen Mosko, Paul Lansky, Paul Ruders, Philippe Manoury, Gerhard Stabler and Diderik Wagenaar.

Critical Response

Enthusiastic critical interest in the festival has been exemplified by active regional, national and international press coverage, including radio broadcast and television specials, articles in national publications such as The New Yorker and Perspectives of New Music and reviews in The New York Times and other leading international papers. Each year, critics from international publications such as the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zeitschrift fur Music, and Zurich and Rome dailies cover the festival's events.

Through recording and broadcast coverage, it is expected that more than 200,000 individuals will hear recorded events of June in Buffalo.

In 1993, two new sub-programs were added to the festival to increase awareness and exposure to new music in the local community.

Children's Education Workshops

The first, an Education Workshop involving elementary-school children and their teachers, focuses on the making of compositions from the inside, and on special performances of specially selected new chamber music chosen to open new musical experiences to them.

Emerging Ensembles-in-Residence Program

The second is the presentation of outstanding, emerging chamber ensembles to perform commissioned works by new composers. The opportunities for composers, performers and ensembles inherent in this sub-program contribute significantly to wider circulation of the young composers' creative efforts.

The Emerging Ensembles-in-Residence program has featured Trio Phoenix from Belgium, The Boston Composer's String Quartet, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, New Millennium, Montreal's premiere contemporary new music group Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Instrumental Factor and San Diego's Sirius Ensemble.

Established ensembles have included the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, The New York New Music Ensemble, the Arditti String Quartet, The American Brass Quintet, The Amherst Saxophone Quartet, the June in Buffalo Chamber Orchestra (comprised of widely recognized soloists) the Cassatt String Quartet and the June in Buffalo String Quartet.

Music Technology Initiative

In 1996, another new program focusing upon interactive computer music composition was begun, taking special advantage of the facilities and expertise available in the arts complexes at the University at Buffalo. This music technology initiative uses the latest Macintosh computers and Max/Msp as the engines for colloquia, concerts and demonstration projects designed to acquaint composers, performers and audience members with the state of the art in the field of interactive computer music.

Collaboration with Goethe Institute

Also in 1996, a new collaboration was begun with the Goethe Institute to present a concert in New York City each summer highlighting festival events, increasing the festival's impact and visibility.

The fact that June in Buffalo is widely known throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia is evidenced by the large number of international participants over the years and continues to be a prototype for festival dedicated to the emerging composer.

The June in Buffalo festival Web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/academic/department/ AandL/music/ links to a number of related sites, including those of American Composers Alliance, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc., The College Music Society, Gaudeamus, Goethe Institut, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), Meet The Composer, National Endowment for the Arts and the Society of Composers, Inc.