EUGENE–An eclectic mix of works for chamber choir, a program of 21st-century avant-garde music for percussion and the final performance of the University Singers under the baton of retiring professor Richard Clark comprise the three concerts scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave.

For more information, call the music school 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 Chamber Choir, under the direction of Assistant Professor Kathryn Lehmann Olson, will give its spring 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 choir will perform "Mass for Five Voices" by William Byrd; one of the two earliest surviving motets by Johannes Brahms; "Songs of Stephen Foster," featuring graduating seniors as soloists; "Two Emily Dickinson Songs for Women’s Voices," set by Michael Hennagin; and two American folksongs, "Shenandoah" and "At the River" set for men’s voices.

On the Rocks, an ensemble of six men from the chamber choir, will perform on the program as well, singing "The Minstrel Boy" and "Sing Me to Heaven."

Doctoral conducting students Lesa Jacobsen and Tracy Freeze will assist Olson.

The Oregon Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Professor Charles Dowd, will perform a concert of 21st-century avant-garde classical works, titled "Mallet Monsters" and "A Classical Tribute to Stomp."

The performance begins 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 concert will feature the world premiere of "Curios for Keyboard Mallet Percussion Sextet" by UO Graduate Teaching Fellow Elyzabeth Meade. A doctoral student in composition, Meade won first place in the 1999 Percussive Arts Society International Composition Contest. She also composed music for the Portugal World’s Fair ‘99 and the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1998.

The three movements in Meade’s piece were inspired by odd artifacts and range in character from a haunting procession to a raucous rhythmic spatial play. The San Jose Mercury described Meade’s other works as "wild and wonderful," and Dance Magazine called them "sensuous."

Other selections on the program include a classical tribute to the international touring group STOMP, including "Music for Pieces of Wood" by New York composer Steve Reich, "The Bucket Thing" by Los Angeles composer Rob Slack, and "Bang On A Can" and "PMOTS" by Charles Dowd. "Tribeca Sunflower" by New York composer Julie Spencer features marimba virtuoso Tracy Freeze, a UO doctoral student in percussion studies.

The concert is the sixth this year for the Oregon Percussion Ensemble, which is in its 27th season of performing modern classical percussion music. The ensemble was nominated for the American Composers Alliance Laurel Leaf Award in New York City in 1995 for its performance of modern American composers.

The University Singers will give its final concert under the direction of Associate Professor Richard Clark at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

Clark, who has been director of choral studies at the School of Music since 1982, retires after this term. The University Singers, one of the School of Music’s premier ensembles since 1945, have achieved great acclaim under Clark’s leadership, performing with distinction at many regional festivals and conferences. They also have sung at two gubernatorial inaugurations and at opening ceremonies of the Oregon Legislature in Salem.

The program will include four motets by Maurice Durufle; "Two Graduals for the Church Year" by Anton Bruckner; "Evening Song" by Josef Rheinberger; "Agnus Dei," transcribed from the famous "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber; "Three Elizabethan Part Songs" by Ralph Vaughan Williams; "Mouth Music" by Dolores Keane; "Wise Words of Love," a set of songs by UO graduate composer Rebecca Oswald based on texts by William Shakespeare; and "The Kumkuatrain Express" by Eugene composer Art Maddox, based on a poem by Mason Williams.

Clark will be assisted on portions of the program by graduate conductors James Reddan, Monica Stutzman, Justin Smith and Joanne McDade.

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