Group for New Music, the Brigham Young University School of Music’s avant-garde and new music ensemble, will present a recital featuring the works of composer David Rakowski Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center.
Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend. There will be one short intermission.
Rakowski will also give a BYU Barlow Endowment Lecture earlier that day at 3 p.m. in E-400 Harris Fine Arts Center. Rakowski is an accomplished composer who has written 100 highly varied and high-energy piano etudes.
The recital will include performances of four of Rakowski’s piano etudes; four additional piano pieces; a performance of Rakowski’s “Hyperblue,” a violin, cello and piano trio piece; and “The Dance of Acclamation Before the Altar” by Murray Boren performed on the organ by BYU faculty member Neil Thornock.
Group for New Music, founded about 20 years ago by BYU professor Michael Hicks, plays formally composed avant-garde music. This group uses extended technique, which includes using instruments in ways they are not usually used.
The Barlow Lecture Series brings composers and other musicians to BYU to discuss and present their work to the BYU community. The lectures began in 1987 and are funded by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at BYU.
Rakowski has earned awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Guggenheim Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, among others. He has been commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the U.S. Marine Band and Network for New Music.
Several of his works have been selected as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in music. He lives in Boston and teaches at Brandeis University.
For more information, contact Steven Ricks at (801) 422-6115.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
