University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: February 6, 2003

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The lilting tones of Bach—played on a cello with a carrot?

There's never a dull moment when the California EAR Unit performs. The group is noted for combining a "classical" instrumentation of flute, clarinet, keyboards, percussion, violin and cello with an "anything goes" approach that can include voices, panpipes, handcuffs, theatrics and, yes, a carrot.

California EAR Unit

Dubbed the "wizards of new music" by the LA Daily News, the unit will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 15 in Slee Concert Hall, North Campus—one of several performances to be presented during February by the Department of Music.

Also scheduled to appear in Slee will be UB faculty members Susan Fancher and David Fuller. New York composer Kirk Nurock will appear in Baird Recital Hall during the second annual Jazz Workshop.

Founded in March 1981, the Los Angeles-based California EAR Unit is recognized as one of America's finest contemporary chamber ensembles. Violins and pianos one minute, harmonicas and amplified plants the next—the audience attending an Ear Unit performance never knows what to expect.

Since 1987, the unit has been ensemble-in-residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it presents its own, critically acclaimed, four-concert series. Its repertoire of more than 400 compositions ranges from the most-demanding works for the concert hall to collaborations with major artists in other fields to produce original, multimedia works.

The group has performed at major venues all over the world and has been featured in documentaries for the BBC and Japanese television. Many of its concerts have been broadcast by American and National Public Radio.

More new music will follow on Feb. 18, when Kirk Nurock presents a free concert for the second annual Jazz Workshop. Nurock, whose work blends jazz improvisation, 20th century classical techniques, theater music, texts from classical poetry, scat singing, live animal sounds and rich contemporary orchestration, will perform at 8 p.m. in Baird Recital Hall.

Kirk Nurock

As a child prodigy, Nurock was honored at age 16 with the first annual Duke Ellington Scholarship to the Eastman School of Music. He now holds a master's degree in composition from the Juilliard School. He teaches in the New School's Jazz and Contemporary Music Program.

Throughout his career, Nurock has explored unconventional ways of making music, including works for untrained voices and several pieces addressing "cross-species communication" with sea lions, wolves, screech owls, guinea pigs and a Siberian tiger—he even has incorporated live animals in his concerts.

However, Nurock can't be classified as a mere eccentric—he has arranged music for Dizzy Gillespie and Leonard Bernstein, and currently is co-orchestrating a large work with composer Meredith Monk, to be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Valentine's Day will be a special one in Slee Hall, as Susan Fancher—UB faculty member and member of the Amherst Saxophone Quartet—presents a recital of works composed no earlier than 1939, including a world premiere of music inspired by the lonely roadside motels of Northern Ontario.

Fancher will be joined in the 8 p.m. recital on Feb. 14 by Mark Engebretson, her husband and fellow member of the ASQ; saxophonist Wildy Zumwalt; percussionist Rin Ozaki, and pianist Stephen Manes, chair of the Department of Music.

Prior to joining the ASQ in 1998, Fancher was soprano saxophonist with the Vienna Saxophone Quartet. She has commissioned and premiered more than 60 new compositions for saxophone quartet, and has appeared in hundreds of concerts internationally as a soloist and member of chamber music ensembles.

She holds a doctorate in saxophone performance from Northwestern University and the Medaille d'Or from the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, France.

Professor Emeritus David Fuller's all-Bach organ recital featuring the complete "trio sonatas," to be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 in Slee, should be a particularly notable one: these pieces are rarely performed together as a group.

"Such performances are a phenomenon of our time and they have something of the nature of a stunt," Fuller says. "The first and only time I have heard the trio sonatas played together live was some 60 years ago, by organist E. Power Biggs."

A UB faculty member from 1963-98, Fuller taught the history of music to UB students. As a musicologist, he specializes in French music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and in problems of historical performance.

On the Fisk Organ in Slee, Fuller has recorded the last two symphonies of Widor and two further sets devoted to Germanic romantic music, including the tone-poem "Saul" by Eduard Stehle, and Hans Fuhrmann's eighth sonata.

He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard.

Tickets for California Ear Unit are $12 for the general public, $9 for UB faculty, staff and alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with card, and $5 for students.

Tickets for Fancher's and Fuller's recitals are $5 for the general public and free for UB students with ID.

Tickets for all Slee Hall concerts may be obtained at the Slee box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and at all TicketMaster outlets.

The full slate of Slee Hall concerts is available online at www.slee.buffalo.edu.