Eric Whitacre
American classical composer, conductor, and lecturer Eric Whitacre will be the featured composer for the 2008 Festival of Contemporary Art Music (FoCAM). Whitacre will conduct a program featuring his choral works at a public concert performed by the WSU Concert Choir, WSU Madrigal Singers, University of Idaho Vandaleers, UI University Chorus, and WSU Wind Symphony on Saturday, February 9, at 8:00 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre.
An accomplished conductor and clinician, Whitacre has become one of the most performed choral and symphonic composers of his generation. Charles Argersinger, creator and director of WSU's Festival of Contemporary Art Music, acknowledges Whitacre as one of America's leading composers of choral music.
"Eric Whitacre's music is innovative and emotionally powerful," said Argersinger. "He manages to balance the need for fresh, contemporary musical language with the necessity of writing with what musicians call 'good voice leading'—melodic lines of largely stepwise motion which are relatively easy to hear and sing."
Whitacre will visit campus February 7–9 to speak to students and faculty and conduct rehearsals for the Saturday evening performance.
Lori Wiest (associate professor, music) said, "The opportunity to work with world-renowned composers is one of the most outstanding features of the Festival of Contemporary Art Music.… The students are very excited to work with Eric Whitacre and to learn more from him about the art of composition and his ideas regarding his own compositions and the performance of them."
Receiving his master's degree in 1997 from the Juilliard School, Whitacre studied there with Oscar-winner and 2007 FoCAM guest composer John Corigliano. His a cappella music collection "Cloudburst and Other Choral Works" (Hyperion Music, 2007) was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award in the category of Best Choral Performance, and his compositions have received awards from the Barlow International Foundation, the American Composers Forum, the American Choral Directors Association, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Whitacre recently received the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for most promising musical theater composer for Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a cutting-edge musical combining trance, ambient, and techno-electronica with traditional choral, cinematic, and operatic elements.
As a conductor, Whitacre has appeared nationally and abroad with professional and educational ensembles performing his musical works. He has served as chorus master for the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and has been guest conductor with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Gregg Smith Singers, and the Miami Children's Chorus.
The Festival of Contemporary Art Music, an annual event celebrating contemporary classical music showcasing new original compositions by students, faculty, and the visiting artist, opens on Thursday, February 7, at 11:10 a.m. with a recital of new student compositions in Kimbrough Concert Hall.
A faculty concert showcasing new work by WSU professors will be performed Thursday, February 7, at 8:00 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre.
Kevin Olson
WSU's 2008 Festival of Contemporary Art Music will include a campus visit by pianist, composer, and Elmhurst College faculty member Kevin Olson. Originally from Utah, Olson began composing at age 5, and at 12 his composition "An American Trainride" received first prize at the 1983 National PTA Convention in Albuquerque. Olson has been a composer-in-residence at the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy. He has written music for the American Piano Quartet, Chicago a cappella, and the Rich Matteson Jazz Festival, and his work has been extensively published by the FJH Music Company.
In addition to conducting public school workshops, a teacher's clinic, and a masterclass, Olson will attend the WSU School of Music's Piano Pedagogy Lab School (PPLS) student recital of original compositions at 6:30 p.m. February 8 in Kimbrough Concert Hall.
The Festival of Contemporary Art Music also coincides this year with the new WSU American Choral Music Festival.
The American Choral Music Festival, funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, includes a new commissioned work for the WSU Concert Choir by Argersinger and its premiere performance on February 7 at the faculty composers' concert; workshops and open rehearsals on February 8 and 9 with the WSU Concert Choir, WSU Madrigal Singers, UI Vandaleers, UI University Chorus, and WSU Wind Symphony with guest composer and conductor Eric Whitacre; a 3:00 p.m. concert on February 9 in Bryan Hall Theatre featuring performances of American choral music; and the culminating concert at 8:00 p.m. on February 9.
In addition to the on-campus activities, the WSU Concert Choir will take the American Choral Music Festival on tour this spring, performing in public schools around Washington state. Musical selections will feature work by established American composers Eric Whitacre, Dominick Argento, Robert Shaw, Alice Parker, Libby Larsen, Randall Thompson, Moses Hogan, Norman Luboff, and Aaron Copland.
The Festival of Contemporary Art Music is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the School of Music, and the College of Liberal Arts.
Eric Whitacre: www.ericwhitacre.com
Kevin Olson: www.fjhmusic.com/composer/kolson.htm
Festival of Contemporary Art Music: libarts.wsu.edu/artmusic
The Chronicle, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University