Concert of contemporary works to include music by Middlebury College composer March 17
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.-Two pieces composed by Dalit Warshaw, visiting assistant professor of music at Middlebury College, will be among eight works of contemporary music performed by ensemble Luna Nova at the College’s Center for the Arts Concert Hall Wednesday, March 17, at 8 p.m. Under the direction of composer and conductor James Romig, Luna Nova, a new music group of the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), will perform pieces for flute, cello, piano and voice. For the performance of one of her pieces, Warshaw will accompany acclaimed Israeli soprano Re’ut Ben-Zeev on the piano. The program will also include a piece by well-known composer Elliott Carter, one of the prime innovators of 20th century music, who was born in 1908.
The concert, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Center for Educational Technology (CET) at Middlebury College, with funds from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It caps an all-day conference for music faculty, music librarians, and instructional technology staff from colleges all over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. With the conference, the CET launches an initiative to promote collaborative uses of technology to enhance music teaching and learning in the 37 liberal arts colleges it serves.
ACS is a consortium of 16 private liberal arts colleges and universities. The ACS Technology Center, located at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, is one of the CET’s two sister centers and began a similar initiative, the Orpheus Alliance, in 2002. The CET is drawing on ACS support and expertise to launch the new music program.
Warshaw’s works have been performed by 26 orchestral ensembles, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York and Israeli Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Boston and Houston Symphonies.
Five other composers will also be represented:
Ofer Ben-Amots is the winner of numerous international awards, including the Vienna International Competition for Composers. His works have been widely recognized for their emotional and personal expression. He is a member of the faculty at Colorado College.
James Romig’s music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In the tradition of his mentors, Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt, his music celebrates dramatic balance, exuberant virtuosity, and rigorous formal integrity. He is music director of the New York-based ensemble, The Society for Chromatic Art, and teaches at Western Illinois University.
Dorothy Hindman’s music has been performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad and has received numerous awards. Her most recent commissions include “Drift” for the Lithium Saxophone Quartet and an opera for Alabama OperaWorks. She is a member of the faculty at Birmingham-Southern College.
Charles Norman Mason, composer-in-residence with the Goliard Ensemble and a member of the music faculty at Birmingham-Southern College, has won many awards, including first prize in the Atlanta Clarinet Association Composition Competition and a Premi Internacional de Composició Musical Ciutat de Tarragona Orchestra Music Prize.
Chester Biscardi, the chair of the music department at Sarah Lawrence College, is a recipient of the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ives Scholarship, and the Aaron Copland Award. His music is performed internationally and his works include those for opera, chorus, voice and large and small ensembles.
The Middlebury College Center for the Arts is located on Route 30. For more information, contact Louise Watson of the Middlebury College Center for Educational Technology at lwatson@middlebury.edu or 802-443-2114.
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