Department of Music to present Stockhausen’s ‘Mantra’

UB faculty member Eric Huebner will be joined by New York-based pianist Steven Beck for an Oct. 14 performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s monumental work “Mantra,” which features two pianos, electronics, Morse code and percussion.

The concert, presented by the Department of Music and UB’s Robert & Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall.

The hour-long work was composed with the famed Kontarsky duo in mind and began simply as a melody written on an envelope during a car ride in 1969. Later, as Stockhausen abandoned a separate, earlier work designed for the duo, he revisited the original melody and developed it into a fully composed piece. 

The Kontarsky duo premiered “Mantra” in late 1970.

UB Associate Professor Eric Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and has been featured in works by Lindberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Milhaud, Carter and R. Strauss, among others. In March 2016, he was featured in recital as part of the New York Philharmonic’s “Messiaen Week” — a series concerts featuring the work of the late French composer.  

A devoted teacher as well as performer, Huebner maintains a studio of graduate and undergraduate piano majors and minors, and teaches courses in 20th-century piano music and piano literature.  

Since the fall of 2014, he has been a member of the adjunct faculty of The Juilliard School, where he teaches a course in orchestral keyboard performance.

He holds a BM and MM from Juilliard.

Steven Beck is also a graduate of Juilliard, where his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin and Bruce Brubaker.

He made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson), Sequitur, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and the Virginia Symphony.

Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, Steinway Hall, Tonic and Barbes, as well as with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series and WNYC.

He has worked with Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, George Perle and Charles Wuorinen, and has appeared with such ensembles as Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Manhattan String Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet, The Metropolis Ensemble and the New York Philomusica, to name a few.

Tickets for the concert are available through a variety of outlets at the following pricing structure:

UB faculty, staff, alumni, seniors and non-UB students

• $10, plus $2 fee online at www.ticketfly.com
• $10, plus $4 fee by phone at 877-987-6487 (Ticketfly)
• $14 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday)
• $17 in person at the door (one hour before concert time)

General public

• $15, plus $2 fee online at www.ticketfly.com
• $15, plus $4 fee by phone at 877-987-6487 (Ticketfly)
• $19 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday)
• $22 in person at the door (one hour before concert time)

UB students are admitted free with ID.

For a complete list of all concerts being presented by the Department of Music, visit the department’s website.