June In Buffalo 2000 -- Spectacular Series Of Performances Will Mark 25th Anniversary Celebration

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- David Felder, artistic director of June in Buffalo, the pioneering festival for emerging composers of new music, promises "a spectacular festival this year, as deserves an event that has contributed so much to American music."

June in Buffalo, presented annually by the University at Buffalo Department of Music, will mark its 25th anniversary in June, and Felder -- professor of music at the university -- says there will be plenty of well-known candles on the cake this year. They will present lectures, master classes and what Felder calls "an expanded series of concerts starring work by many of the most prominent and respected composers active today."

The 2000 June in Buffalo composition faculty will include Philip Glass, Lukas Foss, Donald Erb, Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, Augusta Read Thomas, Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Harvey Sollberger, Nils Vigeland and Joji Yuasa.

There will be concerts of their work, as well as work by Felder, an internationally regarded composer who has received a number of distinguished awards and commissions, and who has represented the United States at major festivals of new music held overseas. (Click for the preliminary program.)

And that's just the beginning.

June in Buffalo is dedicated both to new composers and to the exposure of new music around the world. Its reputation is based on its ability to serve the emerging composer in ways that other festivals and academic programs cannot. (Click for the history.)

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

Many composers of new music, particularly those new to the field, seldom have the opportunity to actually hear their work performed. The thorough preparation and rehearsal of participants' work -- followed by its performance by superb musicians who specialize in new music -- is a particular boon offered by June in Buffalo to its participants.

Each of the 15 emerging composers selected to take part in the festival this year will have one of her/his solo pieces performed in afternoon workshop presentations and will receive a master tape for study and demonstration purposes. Performances will feature renowned resident ensembles and soloists with international reputations as interpreters of contemporary music.

The festival has earned a notable reputation among composers and performers alike, not only for its distinguished composition faculty, but for the outstanding professional musicianship of its resident ensembles and individual performers, who perform work by new and established composers.

This year, the resident performance ensembles will include The New York New Music Ensemble, Slee Sinfonietta, June In Buffalo Chamber Orchestra, Cassatt String Quartet, Amherst Saxophone Quartet, Bugallo/Williams Piano Duo and Blum/Vigeland/Williams Trio.

Among the concert highlights will be "An Evening with Philip Glass" on June 8, including performances of Glassworks, Floe and Island, followed by a lecture by Glass, a performance of his Concerto for Saxophones and a screening of his film "Koyaanasquatsi," considered by many to be one of the finest marriages of late-20th century music and filmatic art.

On June 5, a concert of work by Morton Feldman, Foss and Felder will be presented by the June in Buffalo Orchestra, preceded by a talk by Felder, Foss, Jan Williams and Jesse Levine.

The festival also will present "The Feldman Soloists" in a performance of his work Crippled Symmetry. This concert will be reprised on June 16 in New York City at the Goethe Institut-German Cultural Center.

Other notable concerts will include works by John Cage, Vigeland and György Ligeti; "The Three Basses" -- featuring three noted double-bassists in a performance of works by Rands, Erb, Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Brian Ferneyhough and Jakob Druckman, and a performance by The New York New Music Ensemble and friends.

For biographies of faculty and performance ensembles, and information on applications, fees, June in Buffalo staff, Internet links to affiliated organizations, funding sources and the UB Department of Music, go to http://wings.buffalo.edu/academic/department/AandL/music/; click on "June in Buffalo."