EUGENE–The music of northern India, Spain and Indonesia await audiences who also can hear contemporary Black gospel music and concert band repertoire in the five concerts scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave.

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.

The UO Symphonic Band and UO Campus Band will share a concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

The Symphonic Band, directed by Timothy Reynolds, will perform "The Divine Comedy" by Robert Smith, a four-movement work about Dante’s journey through Hell (and Purgatory) and ascension to Paradise (heaven).

The Campus Band, directed by Sean Wagoner, will play "A Childhood Hymn" by David Holsinger, "The Untitled March" by John Philip Sousa, "On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss" by David R. Holsinger and "Chorale and Shaker Dance II" by John Zdechlik.

The Pacific Rim Gamelan, directed by Associate Professor Robert Kyr, will give a concert of new music for gamelan at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

The Pacific Rim Gamelan is an Indonesian percussion orchestra consisting of 20 members who perform on the beautifully crafted instruments of a Balinese gamelan. The metal xylophones, gongs and drums produce a rhythmic and colorful music of bell-like textures and deep gong resonances. The members of the ensemble are also composers who write for the gamelan.

The program will feature premieres of music by UO students Nathan Linscheid, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Kyle Sanna, Spencer Lambright, Jeffrey Radcliffe, Matthew Svoboda, Joseph Powers and Jacob Groff. Also featured is a new work by Elyzabeth Meade for eight actors and gamelan–a musical theater piece in which the eight actors have speaking roles as part of the music.

University music faculty and friends will combine their talents for a special Faculty Artist Series concert titled "From Granados to Gershwin: An Evening of Spanish and American Music" at
8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Featured performers include duo-pianists Christine Mirabella and Mary Elizabeth Parker, mezzo-contralto Kristina Carlson, oboist and English horn player J. Robert Moore, and pianists Winifred Kerner and Victor Steinhardt.

Selections on the program include two Spanish Dances and "La Maja dolorosa" by Enrique Granados, "Danses andalouses" by Manuel Infante, "Haiku" by Winifred Kerner, "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams, "Tango" by Victor Steinhardt and several songs by George Gershwin–"Just Another Rhumba," "The Man I Love," "The Real American Folksong" and "My Man’s Gone Now."

The University Gospel Ensemble, directed by John Gainer, will celebrate Black History Month with a concert of traditional and contemporary Black gospel music at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

A special guest artist, vocalist Pam Baker of Corvallis, will join the Gospel Ensemble’s strong lineup of lead vocalists for this concert. Baker is originally from Atlanta, Ga., and Gainer says her singing "will set your soul on fire!"

Selections on the program include "My Mind Is Made Up" by Darius Brooks; "My Hope Is In the Name" by Eddie James; "Just Another Day" by Craig Tyson; "If I Can’t Say a Word" by Donald Lawrence; "Lord We Magnify You" by Fred Williams; "God Will Bring You Out" by Dana Robinson, and many others.

The University Gospel Ensemble, founded by Gainer 15 years ago, is an advanced group of gospel singers at the University of Oregon. The group strives for authentic performance of Black gospel music, including the incorporation of gospel choral choreography by Renesa Tucker-Fair, Shaderra Stevens and John Gainer. Instrumental accompaniment is by Cedric Weary on keyboard, Paul Hemphill on bass guitar, and Aaron Dyson on drums.

Classical music of North India will be the focus of a World Music Series concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens.

The featured performers are Kartik Seshadri, sitar, and Arup Chatterjee, tabla.

Seshadri is generally acknowledged as the foremost disciple of world-renowned sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. Seshadri began his illustrious career as a child prodigy, performing full-length solo recitals at the age of six. In 1974, he became a formal disciple of Ravi Shankar and has performed with him in major concert halls in India, Europe, the Near East, Japan, Mexico and the United States, including Carnegie Hall in New York City. In the United States, Seshadri has performed at major music festivals such as the Smithsonian Institution’s First International Music Festival, the Festival of Indian Music, and the year-long Festival of India.

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); "when he played this raga the audience was almost on the verge of tearful acknowledgement of Kartik’s genius" (The Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad); "truly one of the finest representatives of the Indian tradition available to serious music lovers in the United States" (Carol Robertson, past president of the Society for Ethnomusicology).

Chatterjee is recognized as one of the most outstanding tabla players of the younger generation. Chatterjee began his training at the age of six from his father, the eminent tabla player Shri Pankaj Chatterjee. He later became a premier disciple of the world-renowned tabla virtuoso Pandit Shankar Ghosh of the Farukabadh style. An affiliated artist with All India Radio and Doordarshan Television, Chatterjee records and performs frequently for the Indian broadcasting network. He has accompanied some of India’s leading musicians and recently has completed tours of the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Chatterjee recently has produced a CD recording of solo tabla performance.

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