EUGENE– Composer-pianists Art Maddox and Robert Keeley will perform world premieres and other contemporary works during the sole concert scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music.

Part of the music school’s Vanguard Concert Series, their performance will begin at 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 25, in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

The program will feature original works by both Maddox and Keeley, including some completed within the past year. Instrumentalists joining them include violinist Leslie Sawyer, saxophonist Tom Bergeron, clarinetist Wayne Bennett, bassist Forrest Moyer, oboist Larry Brezicka, violist Franklin Alvarez, cellist Phil Hansen and vocalist David Shapero.

Selections by Keeley include the world premieres of "Music for Art & Tom" featuring Maddox and Bergeron, "Four Little Piano Pieces" and "On the Beach at Night" for piano and vocalist. Receiving its U.S. premiere will be his instrumental quintet, "Dances With Bears," subtitled "An Imaginary Ursine Ballet in Three Scenes."

Maddox and Keeley also will perform Igor Stravinsky’s "Sonata for Two Pianos."

A Eugene pianist/composer, Maddox is noted for the warmth and stylistic range of his music. Classically trained, he holds master’s and doctoral degrees in music composition.

In 1966—67 Maddox was awarded a Fulbright Grant for electronic music composition at the Polskie Radio Studio Eksperymentalne in Warsaw, Poland. He also was pianist for the U.S. Women’s Gymnastic Team from 1971—76, including performances at the Olympic Games in Munich and Montreal. His compositional range includes chamber, symphonic and choral music, songs, solo instrumental works, pieces for electronic instruments and computer, and music for theater, film, radio, television and dance.

Since 1981 Maddox has worked with composer-guitarist Mason Williams ("Classical Gas," The Smothers Brothers Show) on many projects, including music for television, theater and live concerts. He is arranger-keyboardist and music director for Mason’s concert of music about rivers and water, "Of Time & Rivers Flowing," which has been performed throughout the United States. The acoustic instrumental Christmas album, "A Gift of Song" with Mason Williams & Friends, showcases several of Maddox’s orchestral arrangements and compositions.

In 1986, Maddox created the musical setting for Oregon novelist Ken Kesey’s retelling of an Ozark folk tale, "Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear." A ballet version of "Little Tricker," with choreography by Toni Pimble, was performed by the Eugene Ballet in 1990.

Keeley studied with Oliver Knussen at the Royal College of Music (Junior Department), at Magdalen College, Oxford, under the late Bernard Rose, and later with Robert Saxton. For 10 years, he combined careers as a composer, copyist and pianist/repetiteur; in the latter capacity, he worked for Opera Factory, Almeida Opera and in three of Garsington Opera’s series of Haydn operas. He also has played keyboards with the London Sinfonietta and Music Projects/London, and currently enjoys a duo partnership with violinist Darragh Morgan, concentrating on 20th-century repertoire.

In 1988, Keeley studied at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome with the distinguished Italian composer and teacher Franco Donatoni, and then at the Tanglewood Summer Music School, where he was the Benjamin Britten Fellow in Composition, working with Oliver Knussen and Hans Werner Henze. Keeley is currently a lecturer in composition at King’s College, London.

Keeley’s works have been performed by, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Lontano, Opus 20 String Ensemble, Premiere Ensemble and Composers’ Ensemble, Ensemble Bash, the Brunel Ensemble, pianist Colin Stone, guitarists Jonathan Leathwood and Fabio Zanon, and the distinguished soprano Jane Manning, with whom he also performs.

For more information, call the UO School of Music weekdays 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-hours-a-day taped message of the week’s events.

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