University News
New Music Festival March 8-10 at WIU
March 2, 2010
MACOMB, IL - - Western Illinois University's New Music Festival 2010, scheduled for Monday-Wednesday, March 8-10, will feature presentations and forums by invited composers, and concerts by WIU School of Music faculty, students and guest performers.
The New Music Festival provides a unique opportunity for the community and the region to hear new music and meet recognized composers and performers, according to 23rd year festival co-organizers and composers James Caldwell and Paul Paccione, professors of music composition and theory at Western Illinois. All events are open free to the public.
Michael Byron is the festival's feature composter. A composer of instrumental music, Byron's music has been called "harmonically rich, contrapuntally and rhythmically complex, as well as instrumentally virtuosic." His music has been commissioned and performed by groups around the world. As a performer, Byron has been a member of various new music and experimental improvisational ensembles.
He has taught at York University (Toronto) and has served on the board of directors of the Aesthetic Research Centre of Canada, where he edited the first issue of Journal of Experimental Aesthetics. He was the editor and publisher of Pieces, a small press devoted to the increased visibility of influential contemporary American composers. Byron has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts. He has had his music recorded on the Cold Blue and the Neutral labels.
Twelve other participating composers will also work with students in lectures and workshops and perform in concerts. The composers include: Carl Christian Bettendorf, Columbia University; Ivica Ico Bukvic, Virginia Tech; Matthew Dotson, The University of Iowa; Arthur Gottschalk, Rice University; Ryan Jesperson, University of Missouri; Laura Kramer, University of Southern California; Tom Lopez, Oberlin Conservatory; Eric Lund, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Andrew Walters, Mansfield University; and from WIU, Caldwell, Paccione and James Romig.
Concerts, which will be held in the College of Fine Arts and Communication (COFAC) Recital Hall, follow:
Monday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. – Solo, chamber and electroacoustic music by Byron, Caldwell, Romig and Paccione
Tuesday, March 9 at 2 p.m. – Solo, chamber and electroacoustic music by Byron, Bettendorf, Gottschalk, Kramer and Walters; and
at 7:30 p.m. – Solo, chamber and electroacoustic music by Byron, Bukvic, Dotson, Lopex and Lund.
A composers' workshop will be held from 9-11:50 a.m. Wednesday, March 10 in the COFAC Recital Hall, with student composers in a masterclass with Byron.
The New Music Festival 2010 is supported by the Performing Arts Society Academic Support Program, the College of Fine Arts and Communication and the School of Music.
For more information, contact Caldwell, phone (309) 298-1240, or Paccione, (309) 298-1124.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing
Connect with us: