Music festival
Music festival integrates world cultures
By Tokie Brideaux
From Bach to emerging composers, and from traditional Chinese instruments to electroacoustic media, the Department of Music’s fifth annual New Music Festival—Happening 2007—will treat audiences to an imaginative array of sounds and music.
Founded in 2003 by composer and music professor Dr. David Eagle, the week-long festival will integrate music from various traditions and world music cultures with premieres of new compositions.
This year’s festival features visiting artists-in-residence Mei Han, a virtuoso on the Chinese zheng, a 21-string long zither, and world music instrumentalist Randy Raine-Reusch.
By combining 5,000 years of Chinese musical traditions with new experimentation on these unique instruments, they have created a radical new repertoire and experience for music audiences.
Han is a rare blend of virtuoso performer and scholar, whose career spans five continents. Raine-Reusch is a composer, international concert-artist and multi-instrumentalist, with a collection of more than 700 instruments. He has worked with some of the world’s most prominent artists in numerous genres, including Aerosmith, Yes, The Cranberries, Robert Dick, Barry Guy and Sainkho Namtchylak.
“Happening is a unique event that directs lots of energy into the interpretation of new music,” says Eagle. “It provides opportunities to students and a wide variety of Calgary performers, including many alumni, to present new and unheard music in concerts and workshops. A majority of our music students and many of our faculty members are involved as performers, improvisers or composers.”
Happening 2007 also includes the CPO Composer Workshop—an annual collaboration between the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Department of Music —where selected composition students’ works are performed by the CPO in an orchestral score reading session.
For most students, this is their first time to hear their music performed by a professional orchestra. It will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. at the Rozsa Centre. Like many other events in the festival, this event is free and open to public.
Happening 2007 begins on Friday, Jan. 26 with a gala opening concert and continues through to Friday, Feb. 2 with the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble. All events take place in the Rozsa Centre. Festival passes are available at the door for $75 (adults) and $50 (students and seniors). Single tickets are $10-20 (adults) and $7-15 (seniors and students). For more information or to receive a complete schedule call 220-5089 or visit http://newmusic.ffa.ucalgary.ca.