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Contemporary music takes center stage
Some of the most acclaimed musicians in the contemporary music field will be at UB for June In Buffalo.
June in Buffalo, the annual contemporary music festival and conference dedicated to emerging composers, will take place June 1-7 on UB’s North Campus.
The event schedule includes public concerts, open rehearsals, lectures, seminars and master classes.
This “super-school for 21st century music” is presented by the Department of Music and the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music. David Felder, Birge-Cary Professor of Composition and director of the Center for 21st Century Music, serves as artistic director of June in Buffalo—the premiere festival for emerging composers in North America, as well as the oldest contemporary music festival in the U.S.
Headlining the conference this year as senior faculty members, in addition to Felder, are Martin Bresnick, Bernard Rands, Mathew Rosenblum and Harvey Sollberger.
Performing as resident ensembles will be the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, Verge Ensemble and UB’s own professional chamber orchestra-in-residence, the Slee Sinfonietta.
Among the special guests appearing at the festival will be acclaimed French violist Christophe Desjardins, Finnish classical accordionist Mikko Luoma, French composer and computer music specialist Philippe Manoury and Italian composer and bassist Stefano Scodanibbio.
Joining the faculty and performers will be 25 composition students chosen from 90 applicants from around the world. June in Buffalo offers these students the rare opportunity to work and mix with top musicians and world-class faculty in an intimate and casual environment. Under the direction of Felder, more emphasis is now placed on providing opportunities for these emerging composers. For example, each gets to rehearse one of his or her pieces with world-class musicians in a professional setting, resulting in a public performance on the same program as the senior composers.
The round-the-clock schedule consists of daily seminars, lectures, master classes, panel discussions and open rehearsals—capped by first-rate afternoon and evening concerts that are open to the public. Every seminar and concert since the festival was founded by Morton Feldman in 1975 has been recorded, and remains in the UB library’s extensive archives.
For more information and the concert schedule, go to the June in Buffalo Web site.
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