EUGENE–The seven Festival of the Millennium concerts scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave., offer seven premiere performances as well as contemporary gospel songs and 20th-century repertoire for flute and for piano.

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 California E.A.R. Unit, an acclaimed contemporary ensemble from Los Angeles, will give a Vanguard Series concert as part of the Festival of the Millennium. Concert time is 8 p.m. 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 includes "White Lights Lead to Red" by Arthur Jarvinen, "Millennium Dreamscape" by UO Associate Professor Robert Kyr, "Go" by James Sellars, "Vers une musique informelle" by John Peel, and "Frames" by Rand Steiger.

California E.A.R. Unit members includes Dorothy Stone, flute; Marty Walker, clarinet; Robin Lorentz, violin; Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, cello; Vicki Ray, piano; Amy Knoles and Arthur Jarvinen, percussion; and Rand Steiger, conductor.

The California E.A.R Unit has been the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s ensemble-in-residence for 12 years. This past season, they completed phase two of Music in Motion’s "Virtual Concert" in Seattle, a project sponsored by Lila Wallace and the Pew Charitable Trust, that is both a live performance and a webcast virtual performance of a new piece developed with composer Rand Steiger. The E.A.R. Unit does outreach projects with adults in libraries and art galleries and works with school children and university students.

The California E.A.R. Unit just completed a tour of Canada–to the Clay and Glass Museum in Kitchner and the National Gallery in Ottawa–and recorded for the CBC and cable television. Earlier this year, they were awarded the 1999 American Music Center’s "Letter of Distinction" in New York, as well as the 1999 L.A. Weekly Award for Music.

They have several new CDs out, including "Zilver," an all Louis Andriessen disc on New Albion, and a four-CD set, "For Philip Guston" by Morton Feldman, which was dubbed "Best of the Year 1999" by on-line CD NOW.

Quattro Mani, a piano duo from Denver, will give a Vanguard Series concert as part of the Festival of the Millennium. Concert time is 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

The program includes the world premiere of "The Whisperer" by UO Assistant Professor David Crumb; "Stepping Stones" by Joan Tower; "Manic Music for Two Maniacal Pianists" by Lance Hulme; "Prophetic Tropes" by Ofer Ben-Amots with William Stanley, trombone, and Susan Grace, piano; and "Zeitgeist" (Six Tableaux for Two Amplified Pianos) by George Crumb.

Pianists Susan Grace and Alice Rybak bring together two distinguished careers. Each has earned recognition as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States and abroad. They also share a special interest in the vast repertoire composed for two pianos and the unique collaboration involved in its performance.

Quattro Mani has performed throughout the country, both in recital and with orchestra, appearing with such orchestras as the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Springs Symphony and the Cheyenne Symphony. A special interest in the 20th-century repertoire has led to performances of works by Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Crumb and Lang, and participation in contemporary music festivals such as the Jornadas de Musica Contemporenea throughout Spain.

Grace is artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at Colorado College, artistic director of the Colorado College Summer Conservatory and Music Festival, and a member of the Colorado College Trio.

Rybak is on the faculty of the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music and teaches at Indiana University’s Piano Academy each summer.

The Oregon Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Graduate Teaching Fellow Timothy Reynolds, will give a Festival of the Millennium concert 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 Oregon Wind Ensemble is the music school’s elite concert band and specializes in 20th-century wind repertoire. Their program includes "Myaku" by David Dzubay, Edward Gregson’s "The Sword and the Crown," "Ionisation" by Edgar Varese (with members of the Oregon Percussion Ensemble), and the premiere of "Borderlands: From War to Wilderness," by UO alumnus Carl Derfler.

The University Gospel Ensemble, led by its new director, Cedric Weary, will give a concert of contemporary 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.

Featured selections include "Savior More than Life to Me" by Kirk Franklin, "Revive Us Again" by Annointed, "Do You Know Him" by Kurt Carr, "I Will Bless the Lord" by Hezekiah Walker, and other gospel hits by Edwin Hawkins, O’Landa Draper, Greg O’Quin and Cedric Weary.

The Gospel Ensemble is accompanied by a three-piece combo–Devon Saunders on keyboard, bassist Jeremy Gibbons, and drummer Aaron Dyson.

Third Angle, a contemporary music ensemble based in Portland, will give a Festival of the Millennium concert on the theme of "Global Music: Music Across Cultural Boundaries" 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 concert will be preceded by a free talk at 7 p.m., with artistic director Jeffrey Peyton and composers discussing the topic of global music.

The concert features four premieres–a piece by internationally renowned African drummer Obo Addy; a chamber version of a symphonic work on environmental themes by Alaskan composer John Luther Adams; a piece by Native American Arlie Neskahie for flute, storyteller and the White Eagle Singers from Eastern Oregon; and "Violin Concerto No. 2: On the Nature of Harmony" by Robert Kyr, performed by Portland violinist Ron Blessinger and the Pacific Rim Gamelan.

Under the leadership of Peyton since 1995, Third Angle has received enthusiastic critical acclaim for its bold and innovative programming, high artistic standards and tireless efforts to bring American music of this century to a wider audience. The ensemble actively pursues collaborations and residencies throughout the state of Oregon and the Northwest, with recent appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival, the Cascade Festival of Music, the New Music at Willamette Concert Series, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Oregon Festival of American Music, Reed College, Portland State University and Pacific University.

The ensemble has presented groundbreaking collaborative performances with such diverse artists as Rinde Eckert, the Showers of Beauty Gamelan, the Jefferson Dancers, the Oregon Repertory Singers, Choral Cross Ties, nationally known African-American performers Leroy Jenkins, Andrew Hill and Mel Brown, and Native American performers Ed Edmo and Arlie Neskahie, among others.

In just the past three seasons, the ensemble has produced four recordings of American music on the KOCH International Classics and Gagliano Recordings labels, with three more releases slated for the 1999-2000 season. Third Angle concert performances have been heard throughout the Northwest on Oregon Public Broadcasting and across the nation on NPR’s "Performance Today."

Pianist Thomas Rosenkranz will give a guest artist recital for the Festival of the Millennium, performing a variety of 20th-century selections. The performance begins at 2 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Rosenkranz will perform "Piano Piece No. 4" by Frederic Rzewski, "The Alcotts, from Piano Sonata #2" by Charles Ives, "Little Suite for Christmas A.D. 1979" by George Crumb, "China gates" by John Adams, "Piano Sonata No. 1" by Carl Vine, and the world premiere of "conFUsion/comBUstion" for tape and piano by Hye Kyung Lee.

Rosenkranz has performed all over the United States and was the national winner at the 1999 Collegiate Artist Piano Competition, sponsored by the Music Teacher’s National Association. He also has received top prizes at the Venetian Hall Piano Concerto Competition and the Atlanta Young Artists Competition.

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was awarded the William Robert Abate Memorial prize in piano (the top prize for a senior pianist) and the Faculty Excellence in Instrumental Accompanying Award, and was first-prize winner of the 1999 Arthur Dann Piano Competition. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Rosenkranz has performed in a series of freely improvised solo piano concerts, an all-Messiaen concert, and many premieres by faculty and student composers.

Flutist Kristin Halay of Eugene will give a guest artist recital for the Festival of the Millennium. The performance begins at 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Halay’s ambitious program includes "Syrinx" by Claude Debussy, "Night Piece" by Arthur Foote (for flute and string quartet), "Third Cycle" by Guy Tyler and "Quintet" by Carl Nielsen (for woodwind quintet). She also will perform two pieces by composer-in-residence George Crumb, choregraphed by Assistant Professor Amy Stoddart: "Sleepers" (for dancers and tape) and "Idyll for the Misbegotten" (for amplified flute and three percussionists).

Halay is currently principal flute of the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players, Eugene Opera and Oregon Festival of American Music. She performs with the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet, Oregon Bach Festival and the Cascade Festival of Music.

She has appeared as soloist with more than half a dozen symphonies across the United States. Halay is the winner of the 1994 Lillian and Paul Petri competition and attended the Aspen Music Festival as a fellowship recipient. She studied flute under Joanne Tanner at the University of Massachusetts and with Richard Trombley at the University of Oregon.

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