CCM's Music08 Festival Celebrates Music of the 21st Century

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) presents

Music08

, the annual festival of new music and masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries,

June 15-22, 2008

. The festival will feature celebrated composers

Steve Reich

,

Jack Body

and

Frederic Rzewski

and guest ensemble

eighth blackbird

, as well as CCM faculty, guest artists and a select group of visiting young composers for a week of performances, master classes and seminars.

Centered on the practice and performance of new works and chamber music classics, Music08 features veteran composers leading young composers and students in the rehearsal, performance and recording of their work. Each day of the festival culminates in two evening concerts that are free and open to the public.

The festival also features a composition competition in conjunction with eighth blackbird. The 2008 winning composition to be performed by eighth blackbird during Music08 is "Harmonic Space" by California-based composer Daniel Kessner.

All Music08 performances are FREE and open to the public

and will be held in Werner Recital Hall on the UC campus (unless otherwise indicated)-please see below for a complete performance schedule. Parking is available in the CCM Garage and garages throughout the UC campus. For more information visit the Music08 Web site at

www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx

.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Steve Reich
Among the greatest composers of our time, Steve Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music and jazz. Performing organizations around the world marked Steve Reich's 70th year, 2006, with festivals and special concerts. In the composer's hometown of New York, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center joined forces to present complementary programs of his music. In London, the Barbican mounted a major retrospective and concerts were also presented in at least 20 other major cities of the world.

Jack Body
New Zealand composer Jack Body, born in 1944, studied at Auckland University, in Cologne and at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht. During 1976-77 he was a guest lecturer at the Akademi Musik Indonesia, Yogyakarta, and since 1980 he has lectured at the School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington. His music covers most genres, including solo and chamber music, orchestral music, music-theater, music for dance and film, as well as electroacoustic music. A fascination with the music and cultures of Asia, particularly Indonesia, has been a strong influence on his music. As an ethnomusicologist his published recordings include music from Indonesia and China. A recent landmark publication he edited was South of the Clouds, field recordings of Professor Zhang Xingrong (Yunnan Art Institute), of instrumental music of the minorities of South West China (Ode Records, 2003).

Frederic Rzewksi
Frederic Rzewski studied with Walter Piston, Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt at Harvard and Princeton Universities. In 1960 he studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and began a career as a performer of new piano music. In Rome in the mid-60s, together with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, he formed the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) group, which quickly became known for its pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. Rzewski's seminal work "Variations on "The People United Shall Never be Defeated'" has become a standard of the solo piano repertoire.  A professor of composition from 1977 to 2002 at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liege, Belgium, he has taught at numerous other institutions including CCM.

eighth blackbird
Hailed as "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled" by the New Yorker, eighth blackbird is widely lauded for its unusual performing style-often playing from memory with virtuosic and theatrical flair-and its efforts to make new music accessible to wide audiences. Their CD strange imaginary animals won two Grammy Awards in 2008, including Best Chamber Music Performance. Highlights of eighth blackbird's 2007-08 season include The Only Moving Thing, a program of new works by Steve Reich, David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe; new works by Stephen Hartke and Tamar Muskal; and the group's debut at Carnegie's Zankel Hall and a return to the Kennedy Center. The group is in residence at DePauw University and the University of Michigan during the 2007-2008 season, in addition to ongoing residencies at the Universities of Richmond and Chicago. Highlights of past seasons have included performances in South Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, and throughout the United States. The group has won numerous competitions, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Concert Artists Guild Competition. eighth blackbird has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning and Bloomberg News and is represented by Opus 3 Artists.
__________

MUSIC08
Festival Details

Description:  
An eight-day festival of new chamber music, as well as masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring performances of work by noted visiting composers and others in collaboration with guest artists, CCM faculty and students. Featured visiting composers are Steve Reich, Jack Body and Frederic Rzewski, and guest artists include new music ensemble eighth blackbird, pianists Gao Ping and Emanuele Arciuli, cellists Parry Karp and Vittorio Ceccanti and violinist Duccio Ceccanti.

Dates & Times: 
Sunday, June 15-Saturday, June 22; see times below

Location: 
Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (unless otherwise noted)

Admission: 
All concerts are FREE and open to the public.

For Information: 
513-556-9198 or www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx

Parking: 
CCM Garage (at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the University of Cincinnati campus. For additional parking information or directions, please visit www.ccm.uc.edu.

Schedule: 

Sunday, June 15, 8:30 p.m.
CCM Professor of Percussion Allen Otte, Asterisk musical ensemble, CCM Professor of Composition Joel Hoffman, guest composer Frederic Rzewski and more
Performing works by Joel Hoffman and Frederic Rzewski
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Monday, June 16, 6 p.m.
Featuring Asterisk musical ensemble and more
Performing works by Elliott Carter, Frederic Rzewski and more
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Monday, June 16, 8:30 p.m.
Duccio Ceccanti, violin; Vittorio Ceccanti, cello; Emanuele Arciuli, piano
Performing works by Fabio Vacchi, Luciano Berio, Michele dall'Ongaro, Marcello Panni, Ann Millikan and more
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Tuesday, June 17, 6 p.m.
Music08 Young Composers
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Tuesday, June 17, 8:30 p.m.
Gao Ping and Duccio Ceccanti
Performing works by Gao Ping, Jack Body and more
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Wednesday, June 18, 6 p.m.
Music08 Young Composers
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Wednesday, June 18, 8:30 p.m.
Guest Artists
Performing works by Jack Body
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Thursday, June 19, 6 p.m.
Music08 Young Composers
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Thursday, June 19, 8:30 p.m.
Emanuele Arciuli, piano; Amy Gillingham, cello
Performing works by Douglas Knehans (incoming dean of CCM), Morton Feldman, John Cage and Charles Ives
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Friday, June 20, 6 p.m.
Music08 Young Composers
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Friday, June 20, 8:30 p.m.
Parry Karp, cello; Frederic Rzewski, piano; Christopher Karp, piano; Joel Hoffman, piano
Performing works by Joel Hoffman, Frederic Rzewski and eighth blackbird composition competition winner Daniel Kessner
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Saturday, June 21, 6:30 p.m.
Music08 Young Composers
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall

Saturday, June 21, 8:30 p.m.
Guest Artists
Performing works by Steve Reich
Location: Corbett Auditorium

Sunday, June 22, 3 p.m.
eighth blackbird
Performing works by Steve Reich (Music08 co-commission), David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon
Location: Great Hall, Tangeman University Center