UI CAMPUS NOTES -- IOWA CENTER FOR THE ARTS - University News Service

CONTACT: PETER ALEXANDER
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0072; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: peter-alexander@uiowa.edu

Release: Feb. 16, 2001

UI CAMPUS NOTES -- IOWA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

O’NAN READS FEB. 27 -- Novelist Stewart O’Nan will read from his new book, "Everyday People," at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27 in the Prairie Lights bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City. The reading -- part of the "Live from Prairie Lights" series on the UI radio station WSUI, 910 AM — is free and open to the public.

"Everyday People," O’Nan’s sixth novel, is set in his native Pittsburgh and is a portrait of contemporary urban life in America. His previous novels include "A Prayer for the Dying" and "The Names of the Dead." He also has written the nonfiction book "The Circus Fire," a collection of short stories and a screenplay. He is the editor of "The Vietnam Reader," an anthology of fiction and nonfiction about the Vietnam War.

Granta has named O’Nan one of America’s best young novelists. Lewis Nordan says he is
"a major force in American literature."

The New York Times calls O’Nan "a master of voices and the place they resonate from, of human rhythms and the universal rhythms they cut across."

For more information about this event, call Prairie Lights at 337-2681. For UI arts information, visit this new address -- www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa -- on the World Wide Web. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, contact <deborah-thumma@uiowa.edu>.

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D’AGATA READS FEB. 28 -- University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate John D’Agata will read from his first book, "Halls of Fame," at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28 in the Prairie Lights bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City. The reading -- part of the "Live from Prairie Lights" series on the UI radio station WSUI, 910 AM -- is free and open to the public.

D’Agata, who earned degrees in both poetry and non-fiction from the UI, is one of the leading practitioners of an emerging literary genre known as the lyric essay. His innovative work combines aspects of prose, poetry and cultural criticism.

Annie Dillard calls "Halls of Fame" "a daring, utterly original book by a young writer of rare intelligence and artistry." Philip Lopate says, "John D’Agata is pushing the envelope of the modern American essay."

D’Agata’s essays have appeared in the Georgia Review, the Gettysburg Review and Creative Nonfiction.

UNIVERSITY AND CONCERT BANDS FEB. 28 -- The University and Concert Bands from the University of Iowa School of Music will share a concert program at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28 in Clapp Recital Hall. The performance will be free and open to the public.

Two of the large wind ensembles at the School of Music, the University and Concert Bands are open to all students at the UI. Each ensemble will play a number of original compositions for concert band, as well as a march -- the most characteristic genre for military bands.

The University Band is directed by graduate student Brian Amaral. It will perform "A Jubilant Overture" by Alfred Reed, "On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss" by David Holsinger, "Colonel Bogey" March by Kenneth Alford, "Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, transcribed for band by Jim Curnow, and "Satiric Dances" by Norman Dello Joio.

David Holsinger wrote "On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss" in 1989 to honor the retiring principal of Shady Grove Christian Academy in Grand Prairie, Tex. Holsinger, who was the chief musician at Shady Grove Church at the time, based his score on the hymn "It is Well with my Soul."

Written in 1913, Kenneth Alford’s march "Colonel Bogey" was played by British military bands during World War I. Today it is best known from its use in the 1957 the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

The Concert Band is directed by Kevin Kastens, who is also director of the UI Hawkeye Marching Band. It will perform five works on the program: "Festive Overture" by Dmitri Shostakovich, transcribed for band by Donald Hunsberger; "Irish Tune from County Derry" by Percy Grainger; "Canzona" by Peter Mennin; "Trittico" by Vaclav Nelhybel ; and "The Melody Shop" by Karl King.

Percy Grainger’s "Irish Tune from County Derry" was composed in 1909 and dedicated to the memory of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who died two years earlier. Based on a tune that is better known as "Danny Boy," the setting takes its name from the fact that the melody was collected in County Derry in a study of Irish folk music that was published in 1885 as "The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland."

One of the most distinguished American composers and educators of his generation, Peter Mennin taught composition for many years at the Juilliard School in New York and served as the president of Juilliard from 1962 until his death in 1983. "Canzona," his only work for band, was written as one of a series of commissions by band leader Edwin Franko Goldman and was premiered by the Goldman Band in 1954.

Czech-born composer Vaclav Nelhybel studied at the Prague Conservatory and the University of Prague. He emigrated to the United States in 1957 and became a U.S citizen in 1962. He wrote many successful and popular pieces for symphonic band that combine contemporary harmonies with a powerful rhythmic drive. "Trittico" -- three movements in the traditional pattern fast-slow-fast -- is one of his most dramatic compositions.

Karl King began his professional career as a euphonium player in various circus bands and became bandmaster with Barnum and Bailey’s "Greatest Show on Earth" in 1917. He left after two

years to operate a publishing business, compose and conduct a municipal band in Fort Dodge, Iowa. King conducted the Fort Dodge Municipal Band for more than 50 years. He has over 250 published works to his credit, 188 of which are marches.

Kastens is associate professor of music and assistant director of bands at the UI. He directs the Hawkeye Marching Band and the Concert Band, teaches band arranging and marching band techniques, and is the director of the All-State Music Camp.

Kastens has presented workshops and clinics on marching band techniques and computer drill design and appeared as guest conductor throughout the Midwest and Canada. He has had numerous articles published on instrumental music education in The Instrumentalist and other professional publications.

The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts.

For information on UI arts events, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa on the World Wide Web. You may visit the UI School of Music web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/~music/. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, contact <deborah-thumma@uiowa.edu>.

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NEWMAN READS MARCH 2 -- Leslea Newman, author of the controversial children’s book "Heather Has Two Mommies," will read from her work at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, in the Prairie Lights bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City. The reading -- part of the "Live from Prairie Lights" series on the UI radio station WSUI, 910 AM -- is free and open to the public.

Newman is the author of numerous books for both children and adults, including "Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear" and "A Letter to Harvey Milk." She has earned poetry fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Association and the National Endowment for the Arts and has won the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award and the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement. She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is a five-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Newman says "Heather Has Two Mommies," the story of a young girl whose parents are lesbians, was inspired by an encounter with a lesbian mother in Massachusetts. "I never intended or expected to cause such a fuss," Newman has said. "I just wanted to give the dyke on the street a warm fuzzy story she could read to her daughter."

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UI DANCERS IN COMPANY PRESENT COMMUNITY CONCERT MARCH 3 -- Dancers in Company, the touring repertory ensemble of the University of Iowa dance department, will present a special free performance at 3 p.m. Saturday, March. 3 in the Space/Place Theatre of UI North Hall. The performance is part of the Target Community Concert Series, presented by the UI Division of Performing Arts and the UI Arts Share program.

Advance reservations are required to ensure seating. Call the Arts Share office at
(319) 335-1618 for reservations.

The 12-member Dancers in Company ensemble, which is chosen by audition, provides UI dance students with practical experience similar to that encountered by professional touring dance companies. The student dancers are required to maintain a diverse repertory while coping with travel and performing in a variety of facilities. Co-directors of the company are faculty members Jeffery Bullock and Charlotte Adams.

The Dancers in Company repertory features a wide variety of dance styles, from ballet to modern dance to ethnic movement, including dances selected especially for educational events with young audiences.

UI Arts Share provides artistic resources from the Iowa Center for the Arts to schools and community organizations. The 2000-2001 Arts Share roster includes more then 70 faculty and graduate students in music, theatre, dance, the visual arts and creative writing.

Arts Share and Target began a partnership in 1995 designed to sponsor field trips, dance workshops and performances for children in Iowa community schools. The 2001 Target Community Concert Series will also include performances by the Iowa Brass Quintet on March 25 and WIZARDS! A Double Reed Ensemble on March 31.

To learn more about the Target Community Concerts Series, all the Arts Share office or
e-mail at d-kenney-handler@uiowa.edu.

For UI arts information, visit this new address -- www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa -- on the World Wide Web. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, contact Deborah-thumma@uiowa.edu.

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PHILHARMONIA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MARCH 4 --The Philharmonia chamber orchestra from the University of Iowa School of Music will present a free concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 4 in Clapp Recital Hall on the UI campus.

The performance will be under the direction of Timothy Dixon and Lucia Matos, graduate students in the conducting program at the School of Music.

Dixon will open the concert with the Overture to "The Barber of Seville" by Gioacchino Rossini, and later will lead the orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Symphony No 25 in G minor, K. 183. Matos will conduct "Dance rhythm," op.58 by Wallingford Riegger

Rossini was the most important and celebrated Italian composer in the first half of the 19th century. His operas swept across Europe in the 1810s and ‘20s, captivating audiences in virtually every country. His music was marked by wit, brilliant orchestral colors, a distinctive rhythmic drive and, above all, a highly individual use of dynamics that he appears to have invented, with his famous, cleverly orchestrated crescendos.

All of these qualities are evident in Rossini’s overtures, which have long been popular orchestral concert openers. Of the many Overtures Rossini wrote, that to "The Barber of Seville" is probably the most popular of all.

Mozart completed his Symphony in G minor, K. 183, late in 1773. There is no record of a first performance, though in all likelihood it was given by the court orchestra in the composer’s native Salzburg, perhaps with Mozart directing from the first violin stand.

The use of the major key was much more common in Mozart’s day than minor keys. This was the first work of only two symphonies Mozart wrote in a minor key -- the other being the more famous G-minor Symphony, K. 550, of 1788. Both symphonies have a turbulent and passionate character that is clearly a consequence of the use of a minor key.

American composer Wallingford Riegger was born in Albany, Ga., in 1885 and died in New York City in 1961. He showed musical talent at an early age studying violin and piano. When he was a teenager his parents influenced him to learn how to play cello, so the family could have its own string quartet. He studied at the Juilliard School and graduated in 1907.

After graduation he went to Europe to study composition. When World War I began, Riegger returned to the United States and accepted a position teaching cello at Drake University. In 1922 he moved to New York and lived there until his death.

During the 1930s Riegger wrote music for several dance companies, including Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. From 1941 he turned to chamber and symphonic music. Throughout his life, Riegger composed several different styles, which he described as "non-dissonant (mostly), ‘Impressionist,’ partly dissonant and dissonant."

The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts.

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ORGAN AND CLAVICHORD RECITAL MARCH 4 -- David Schrader, a specialist in performance on early keyboard instruments, will perform music from the 16th through 18th centuries, presenting the same program at 4 and 8 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in the Krapf Organ Studio in the Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa.

The concert, which is sponsored by the UI School of Music and the Iowa City Early Keyboard Society, will be free and open to the public. Schrader will perform his program twice because the Krapf Organ Studio seats fewer than 100 people.

A versatile performer with wide-ranging interests, Schrader performs on harpsichord, organ, clavichord, the forte-piano and the modern piano. For his UI guest recital, he will play the clavichord and organ. His program will cover a wide historical spectrum, from some of the earliest written compositions for organ to the Baroque period, and from several different European musical traditions.

Composers represented on the program include Heinrich Scheidemann, Paul Hofhaimer, Pierre de la Rue, Antonio de Cabezon, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Dietrich Buxtehude and
Jan Pietersoon Sweelinck. Schrader will conclude his recital with the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue
in C major, BWV 564, by J.S. Bach.

Schrader is on the faculty of Roosevelt University in Chicago. He has been organist for the Church of the Ascension in Chicago, which is known for the integrity of its liturgy, for more than
20 years. He also performs regularly with the several historical ensembles in Chicago, including Music of the Baroque, the Newberry Consort, the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and the Rembrandt Ensemble, and he performs for Bach Week in Evanston, Ill.

He is a frequent guest on radio station WFMT, both on recordings and live broadcasts, and he has appeared at the Aspen, Michigan Mozartfest and Woodstock Mozart festivals. He has been invited to appear at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, and as a featured artist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Grant Park Symphony and other orchestras in the United States and Europe. He has regularly appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony under many of its renowned conductors, including Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.

Schrader has recorded concertos of J.S. Bach with the Stuttgart Chamber Players, as well as many solo works of Bach, Soler, Franck, Vivaldi, Dupre and Domenico Scarlatti. He holds bachelor’s degrees from the University of Colorado, and a doctorate and performer’s certificate from Indiana University.

The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts.

For information on UI arts events, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa on the World Wide Web. You may visit the UI School of Music web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/~music/. More information about the Iowa City Early Keyboard Society and its programs is available at http://www.jccn.iowa-city.ia.us/~iceks1/.

To receive UI arts news by e-mail, contact <deborah-thumma@uiowa.edu>.

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COMPOSERS WORKSHOP PRESENTS NEW MUSIC MARCH 4 -- The Composers Workshop at the University of Iowa School of Music will present a free concert of new works by student composers at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in Clapp Recital Hall on the UI campus.

Seven works will be presented on the concert: "palintropos" for solo cello by graduate student Albin Jones; "wir fallen von Naehe zu Naehe" (We fall from nearness to nearness) for mixed ensemble, also by Jones; "Mouthpiece" by graduate student Erin Gee; "Calm III" for piano and oboe by graduate student Shinjung Kim; "Kufanya Tena" for string trio by undergraduate Nicolas Propes; "Ice, Eden" for piccolo and flute by graduate student Cristopher Brakel; and "Reverie," computer generated sound, also by Brakel.

The titles of both pieces by Jones come from literary or philosophical works. "Palintropos" is a Greek word, meaning "bending back," that is the title of a fragment by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. In his work, Jones uses Heraclitus’ ideas from the fragment -- as well as Friedrich Nietzsche's interpretation of them -- as the basis for his compositional procedures.

The title "wir fallen von Naehe zu Naehe" is a line from Rainer Maria Rilke’s "Narcissus." In writing this piece, Jones was inspired by the writing of the French deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida.

The title of Propes’ "Kufanya Tena" comes from Swahili words meaning "to do again."
The score is based on short repeated segments, each of which is between one and three measures long and a slight variation on the previous segment. The piece is composed using only three notes, C, C-sharp, and B, which are pitted against each other to create dissonance and tension.

Brakel said that "Ice, Eden" was conceived and composed in the fall of 2000 from the composer’s fascination with two lines from a poem by Paul Celan, from which the piece takes its title: "Before this hour has ended ice will rise from the dead." "Musically," Brakel said, "the piece does not try to recreate the implications of these lines, but rather is a study in coordination and
non-coordination between the two players."

Brakel described "Reverie," his other work on the program, as "an electro-acoustic daydream contained in a quadraphonic sound world." Brakel said he wrote the piece, which has just been completed, "with the intention of creating a digital ‘wandering’ piece, meaning that there is not necessarily a logical structure of music materials on the surface level."

The Composers Workshop is a collaborative project between composers and performers in the UI School of Music. It is devoted to the performance of music written at the UI and aims to foster greater co-operation and interplay between composers and performers in the Iowa City area. The workshop is directed by David Gompper, professor of music in the Theory and Composition Department of the School of Music and director of the Center for New Music.

The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts.

CONTACT: PETER ALEXANDER 100 Old Public Library Iowa City IA 52242 (319) 384-0072; fax (319) 384-0024 e-mail: peter-alexander@uiowa.edu

CONTACT: PETER ALEXANDER
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0072; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: peter-alexander@uiowa.edu