Studied composition with Darius Milhaud, Roger Sessions
Special guest artist William O. Smith will perform a clarinet recital at Brigham Young University Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall. Admission is Free.
Smith is considered the pioneer of extended woodwind technique and "comprovisation." He studied composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in 1946 and with Roger Sessions at the University of California at Berkeley, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees from that school in 1950 and 1952. He also attended classes at the Paris Conservatory (1952-1953) and the Juilliard Institute (1957-1958).
His awards include a Prix de Paris, the Phelan Award, a Prix de Rome, A Fromm Players Fellowship, a National Academy of Arts and Letters Award, a BMI Jazz Pioneer Award, a BMI Jazz Pioneer Award and two Guggenheims. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of Southern California.
Since 1966, he has been the director of the the Contemporary Group at the University of Washington. His association with jazz legend Dave Brubeck began at Mills College, where he was one of the founders of the Dave Brubeck Octet and responsible for many of the group's arrangements.
This concert is part of the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, which has funded many new compositions. The Barlow Endowment began in 1983 when Milton A. Barlow made a generous donation to the composition area of BYU's Music Department (now the School of Music). His daughter, Alice Barlow Jones, now represents the family as an ex-officio member of the Barlow Endowment's board of directors.
For more information, contact Ken Crossley at (801) 422-9348 or Christian Asplund at christianasplund@gmail.com.
Writer: Melissa Connor
