EUGENE–University of Oregon percussionist Charles Dowd will give an unusual Faculty Artist Series recital for solo timpani on Thursday, April 1, in honor of American composer Elliott Carter’s 90th birthday.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. on the UO campus. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

All the compositions on the recital are rarely heard solo timpani pieces, including "Six Pieces for Four Timpani (One Player)" by Elliott Carter.

Carter, born Dec. 11, 1908, in New York City, is regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest composers, having won two Pulitzer Prizes, two Guggenheim fellowships, the American Prix de Rome, the National Medal of Arts, Music Critics Circle Award and numerous other honors.

Other selections on Dowd’s program include "Sonata for Timpani and Piano" by Anthony Cirone, featuring Dowd and pianist Victor Steinhardt; "Ballad for the Dance," a piece for ballet dancer and kettledrums by the late New York Philharmonic timpanist Saul Goodman; and a timpani piece by European composer André Philidor, featuring trumpeters George Recker, David Bender, and Richard Berg.

Dowd also will perform two virtuosic works written for and dedicated to him: Meyer Kupferman’s "The Stone Tears of Ixtaccihuatl" and George Barati’s "Three Inventions for Solo Timpani."

A member of the UO faculty since 1974, Dowd a professor in the School of Music, specializes in percussion studies. He studied with Saul Goodman at the Juilliard School of Music and has coached with Elliott Carter on the "Six Pieces for Four Timpani."

Dowd is principal timpanist with the Eugene Symphony, the Oregon Bach Festival and the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, Calif. His performances have been described as "virtuosic" by The New York Times, "sparkling" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "a bundle of energy" by the Stuttgart Zeitung.

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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