April 8, 1997 School of Music Contact Scott Barkhurst (541) 346-1163 or John R. Crosiar 346-3135 EUGENE--The Oregon Symphony's world premier of an original work by Robert Kyr, a north Indian classical music concert and a retirement celebration of UO composer Harold Owen's career are featured this week in the Music Today Festival events at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave. The Music Today Festival is a four-week celebration of 20th-century music, sponsored by the music school and other local arts organizations. For more information, call the UO School of Music at (541) 346-5678. To confirm concert times and ticket information, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2533, for a 24-hour taped message of the week's events. Friday, April 18--World Music Series: Kartik Seshadri, sitar Sitar virtuoso Kartik Seshadri will perform classical music of North India in a World Music Series concert included in the Music Today Festival at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets--$10 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens--are available at the door or in advance from the Hult Center, 682-5000. Seshadri began an illustrious performing career as a child prodigy and is generally acknowledged as the foremost disciple of world-renowned sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. He has performed with Shankar in major concert halls in India, Europe, the Near East, Japan, Mexico and the United States, including New York's Carnegie Hall. On his own tours, Seshadri has performed at the First International Music Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, the Festival of Indian Music, and the year-long Festival of India. Recent reviews have described Seshadri's musicianship in glowing terms: "unfalteringly and vividly expressive" (The Statesman, New Delhi); "amazing grasp of raga forms, portrayed with felicity and grace" (The Hindu, Madras); "the audience was almost on the verge of tearful acknowledgment of Kartik's genius" (The Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad). Seshadri will be joined on the program by tabla artist Abhiman Kaushal, who has accompanied most of the leading North Indian musicians on tours throughout the United States, Europe, the Near East, Japan and India. The concert is co-sponsored by the UO School of Music, the Office of International Affairs and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. Saturday, April 19--Music Today Festival: Harold Owen Celebration Concert Faculty, friends and a variety of ensembles will present a Music Today Festival concert in honor of UO music composition professor Hal Owen, who retires at the end of spring term. The program begins at 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens. The concert will feature works by Owen for choir, brass quintet and woodwind sextet. The Eugene Chamber Singers will perform several choral selections, and UO composition students will perform some improvisational piano numbers in honor of Owen, as well as some musical limericks that reflect Owen's frequent tongue-in-cheek humor. A student brass quintet will re-create "A Little Knight Music," which Owen composed for the dedication of the UO's Knight Library. The Earley Musick Pleyers, a faculty ensemble of which Owen has been a member for many years, also will make a special appearance. Though Owen's compositions have a definite 20th-century color, his teaching expertise has been rooted firmly in the Baroque and Renaissance eras. For many years, he directed the Collegium Musicum, a class ensemble that performs early music, often with period instruments and costumes. The collegium, currently directed by Marc Vanscheeuwijck, will perform a piece by 17th-century composer Claudio Monteverdi as part of the tribute concert. Owen joined the UO music faculty in 1966 and has had a distinguished career as a teacher and composer. He has written a large number of compositions for a variety of vocal and instrumental solos and ensembles, many of which are published. He has won several composition awards and has been commissioned to write several works, including a string quartet for the Coleman Chamber Concerts in Los Angeles; an orchestral work, "Periaktos," for the Eugene Symphony, performed in 1978; a work for wind ensemble for performance at the College Band Directors' National Association Conference in 1985; and a chamber concerto for the Oregon Mozart Players, performed in 1986. He has written a large number of works for the church, including anthems and two books of trumpet descants to familiar hymns. Owen has composed a number of pieces specifically for the University of Oregon, the most recent of which include "Oregon Fantasia" for UO President Dave Frohnmayer's investiture ceremony and "Welcome, Small Miracle" for the dedication of the Vivian Olum Child Development Center. Monday, April 21--Faculty Artist Series: Wind, Song and Sonata "Wind, Song and Sonata," a Faculty Artist Series concert included in the Music Today Festival, will feature music for horn, piano and voice. The program begins at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens. With a nod to the Music Today Festival, the program will include performances of two very recent works for horn: the Northwest premiere of "Sonata for Horn and Piano" by Margaret Brouwer, and "Podunk Lake," written by Mark Schultz for horn solo and wind chimes. Horn professor Ellen Campbell, who commissioned the Schultz work in 1993, says she is quite sure she is the only person to have performed the difficult, avant-garde piece, which she describes as "not as much a challenge for the listener as for the horn player." Other selections on the program include "Melody" by Gounod for horn and piano; a Beethoven sonata for valveless hand horn; and a Schubert piece for tenor, horn and piano. Joining Campbell on the program are fellow UO faculty members Mark Beudert, tenor, and Gregory Mason, piano. Tuesday, April 22--Music Today Festival: Green Garter Band The UO Green Garter Band, known for its spirited performances at UO basketball games, will give a formal concert of pop-rock music at 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $4 general admission and $2 for students and senior citizens. The program represents the popular end of the music spectrum in the School of Music's Music Today Festival, which celebrates 20th-century music. The Green Garter Band is one of the music school's elite ensembles, serving as one of the public relations arms of the UO band program. The 11-piece group, directed by Gary Plant, plays for conventions, civic clubs, alumni functions, booster organizations, and special campus events. The concert will contain a wide range of musical styles, from rhythm and blues to jazz to the best of classic and current rock `n' roll. Featured will be tunes by Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Katrina and the Waves, Blood Sweat and Tears, and others. Many of the arrangements are by current or former UO music students, including Lewis Norfleet, Sean Wagoner, Tim Allums and Tim Clarke, and by UO professor Steve Owen. Wednesday, April 23--Music Today Festival: The Oregon Symphony Mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas and the Oregon Symphony, conducted by Murry Sidlin, will perform the world premiere of UO Professor Robert Kyr's "Symphony No. 7, The Sound of Light" at a special concert beginning at 8 p.m. in Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Centre. Reserved-seat tickets range from $8 to $20, with discounts for students and senior citizens. They are available through ticket offices at the Hult Center or the Erb Memorial Union (EMU), 1222 E. 13th Ave. The concert is part of a day-long residency by the Oregon Symphony which is on tour in various Oregon cities this spring. The symphony will participate in a variety of workshops and master classes during the day at the music school. In addition, symphony musicians will take part in a free performance by the Oregon Horn Quartet at 1 p.m. in the EMU's Taylor Lounge. For a complete schedule of the Oregon Symphony's activities on campus, call 346-5678. The program for the evening concert includes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture," Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5," and the premiere of "Symphony No. 7, The Sound of Light" by Robert Kyr. The Oregon Humanities Center commissioned Kyr's work in honor of the center's 10th anniversary. The symphony is based on texts by the acclaimed poet Denise Levertov of Seattle. The featured singer is Milagro Vargas, internationally renowned mezzo-soprano who is also on the School of Music faculty. Kyr, who has received many prestigious commissions and awards, currently heads the composition department at the UO School of Music. A free pre-concert talk by composer Kyr and poet Levertov will be held at 7 p.m. in Studio One at the Hult Center. The concert and residency are sponsored in part by a grant from Bi-Mart, along with the Eugene Symphony, the School of Music and the Oregon Humanities Center. Thursday, April 24--Music Today Festival: Oregon Percussion Ensemble The Oregon Percussion Ensemble, directed by Professor Charles Dowd, will honor composer Lou Harrison's 80th birthday with a Music Today Festival program titled "Lou Harrison Meets Sofia Gubaidulina." The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $4 general admission and $2 for students and senior citizens. The concert juxtaposes the music of Russia's avant-garde composer Sofia Gubaidulina with the unique American music of Lou Harrison. Gubaidulina is one of the first female avant-garde composers to achieve international notoriety. The program will feature the Northwest premiere of "Misterioso" for percussion chamber orchestra by Gubaidulina, contrasted with the rarely performed, never-recorded "Labyrinth" by Harrison. More than 100 percussion instruments from around the world will be used in the performance. Three other pieces by Harrison are on the program, including "Song of the Queztecoatl," which depicts the music of an Aztec bird-deity; "Double Music," which Harrison wrote in correspondence by mail with John Cage; and "Fugue." -30- #P-2201/A&E