April 15, 1997 School of Music Contact Scott Barkhurst (541) 346-1163 or John R. Crosiar 346-3135 EUGENE--The Music Today Festival enters its third week at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave., with concerts featuring original jazz compositions, the premiere of commissioned works for electronic duo and gamelan, string music spanning nearly two centuries and adventurous vocal renditions. 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 25--The Jazz Café Jazz combos from the School of Music's jazz studies program, joined by guest drummer Tony Jefferson, will perform at "The Jazz Café" at 8 p.m. in Room 186 of the Music Building, 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets, available at the door, are $4 general admission and $2 for students and senior citizens. The program will include not only arrangements of music by familiar jazz composers, but also--in the spirit of the Music Today Festival--a variety of original material by student composers. The Jazz Café was created in 1995 to provide the jazz combos more of a cabaret atmosphere than the formal setting of Beall Concert Hall. Seating is around small tables, and light refreshments also are available. Monday, April 28--Basso Bongo and Pacific Rim Gamelan Basso Bongo, a guest ensemble specializing in contemporary music, will join the UO's Pacific Rim Gamelan in a concert of premieres commissioned by the prestigious Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Foundation. 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. Basso Bongo is a state-of-the-art, computer-assisted, interactive duo that takes advantage of the most current music technology to make exciting and appealing new music. Amy Knoles, and Robert Black formed Basso Bongo in 1988, dedicated to the principle of using technology as extensions of their instruments. Each a successful soloist, Knoles performs on electronic and MIDI percussion/interactive computer and Black performs on electronic and MIDI bass. Their repertoire and performances are an intriguing mix of classical and popular styles and trends. Since its inception, the duo has been working in new and often unfamiliar territory. This has given way to close and intimate collaboration with many composers. To date, Basso Bongo has had close to 30 works written for them by composers such as David Lang, Erkki-Sven Tuur, Todd Winkler, Eve Beglarian, Jeff Rona, James Sellars and others. The Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Foundation awarded grants to four composers to create three works for electronic duo (Basso Bongo) and Balinese gamelan--an Indonesian percussion ensemble. The participating composers are Evan Ziporyn with the MIT gamelan, Robert Kyr with the UO's Pacific Rim Gamelan and the collaborative team of Elaine Barkin from the University of California at Los Angeles and I Nyoman Wenten with the Cal Arts gamelan. The grant is one of the most competitive in the country, and this award marks the first time that it has been given to either an electronic or a "non-Western" instrumental ensemble. Basso Bongo's technological abilities include a mix of interactive computer technologies, pre-programmed and live sampling technologies, digital and analog sound synthesis, and extensive signal processing. The duo uses traditional and extended instrumental techniques, as well as vocals. They also often makes use of visuals in performance, most recently using images given to them by artist Robert Longo. Basso Bongo has toured extensively throughout Europe, the Baltic States and the United States. Recent performances include festivals in Estonia and Austria, a one-week residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Los Angeles County Museum's Monday Evening Concert Series. The duo has given many performances and workshops at universities and galleries and in correctional institutions. Basso Bongo has been featured on radio broadcasts such as the internationally distributed series "Art of the States" and on WGBH in Boston. Tuesday, April 29--Faculty Artist Series: Oregon String Quartet The Oregon String Quartet will perform music spanning nearly 200 years on a Faculty Artist Series concert beginning at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens. The program will include a string quartet by Beethoven and, in keeping with the Music Today Festival's celebration of 20th-century music, "String Quartet No. 2" by Philip Glass. A student quartet will join the Oregon String Quartet for the concluding number, a string octet by Felix Mendelssohn. The Oregon String Quartet is one of the flagship ensembles at the School of Music. Its members are Associate Professors Lawrence Maves and Kathryn Lucktenberg, violins; Associate Professor Leslie Straka, viola; and Associate Professor Steven Pologe, cello. Lucktenberg received her bachelor's degree at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has participated regularly at the Marlboro and Grand Teton music festivals. As a former member of the Kasimir String Quartet, she performed throughout much of the United States and in Europe. She was concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony from 1982-1993. Maves is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Juilliard School of Music. He served as concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival for more than 20 years and has appeared as soloist with the Eugene Symphony, the Oregon Symphony and other civic symphonies. Maves is a founding member of the Oregon String Quartet. Straka holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Arizona State University. She has been a featured artist at the Luzerne Chamber Music Center in New York, the Miami Bach Society, the Mainly Mozart and Flagstaff festivals in Arizona, and the York Festival in England. Pologe received his professional degrees from the Eastman School of Music and from the Juilliard School. He has played with the Rochester and Buffalo philharmonics and the Brooklyn Philharmonia, and has served as principal cellist with the New York String Ensemble, Rome Festival Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony and Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester. Thursday, May 1--Musical Postcards from the Edge UO graduate students in vocal studies will be featured in a Music Today Festival concert titled "Musical Postcards from the Edge." Concert time is 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $4 general admission and $2 for students and senior citizens. The singers, accompanied by faculty pianist Gregory Mason, will perform an adventurous program of relatively unfamiliar songs from an international lineup of composers: "Pantomime," "Pierrot" and "Apparition" by Debussy; "Seven Popular Spanish Songs" by Manuel de Falla; "Gravediggers' Lamentations" and "To the Moon" by Schubert; "Songs for Children" by Montsalvage; and collections of songs by Alban Berg, George Rochberg, Richard Hundley and Richard Strauss. Singers include Metropolitan Opera District Competition winner Misook Yun, Eugene Opera soloist Bereniece Jones, baritone Angelo Dias and sopranos Giulietta Smith, Daun Hayes and Sarah Dornblaser. -30- #P-2203/A&E