Kernis

Ashby

Franz

Other guests include the 2000 orchestral composition winner Peter Knell from Charlottesville, Va.; Arved Ashby, freelance music critic; and the Florida-based Core Ensemble.

Concerts by the various performers are scheduled in the afternoons and evenings of the festival.

ISU’s festival stands out from other music festivals around the country in that it not only exposes students to the world of contemporary music but also gives them many chances to interact with composers, musicians and critics who are participating in music of our time.

Kernis, 40, from New York City, is presently composer-in-residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and new music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra. One of the youngest composers ever to receive the Pulitzer Prize, his "String Quartet No. 2" was recognized in 1998. Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a NEA grant, the Rome Prize, a New York Foundation for the Arts Award and three BMI Student Composer Awards.

Several of Kernis’ works will be presented at this year’s festival. "Symphony No.2," a work inspired by the horrors of the Persian Gulf War, will be performed by The Louisville Orchestra at the Oct. 27 concert.

The Core Ensemble’s contribution Oct. 26 will include, among others, Kernis’ "Air for Cello and Piano," and the world premiere of Virko Baley’s "New Trio." The Ensemble consists of Amy Barston on cello, Hugh Hinton on piano and Robert Schulz on percussion. Formed in 1993, the group has garnered international recognition and performed in venues from California to Russia.

In a change from previous years, the opening of the festival will include separate choral and instrumental concerts featuring groups from the Vigo County School Corporation and ISU. The choral concert is at 4 p.m., with the instrumental program following at 7:30 p.m.

This year’s concert by the Louisville Orchestra also will include "Gazebo Dances" by John Corigliano and Knell’s "Fanfares and Fantasies," the winning entry of 85 in the festival’s annual orchestral composition contest.

The orchestra has received several ASCAP awards and has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, among other venues. Franz, a champion of new music, has conducted numerous world premieres and is founder and music director of the Carolina Chamber Symphony. He also is on the conducting staff of the Louisville Youth Orchestra.

Knell is currently visiting assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where he is coordinator of music composition and theory. He has been the recipient of many national and international awards, including first prize in the Omaha Symphony Guild International New Music Competition, two ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Ashby will conduct a seminar each day for students interested in writing music reviews. Currently an assistant professor of musicology at Ohio State University, he is a specialist in 20th century music.

Kernis, along with Knell and Ashby, will be giving presentations on aspects of music being written and performed in recent times. Also included will be a panel discussion in which ISU students will have the chance to ask the festival guests about topics that pertain to contemporary music, and the Core Ensemble will give instrumental master classes Friday.

Other festival activities include a recital by ISU student composers/performers Oct.26 and a Midwest Composers’ Forum concert Oct. 27.

For more information, contact James O’Donnell, festival coordinator, at (812) 237-2771.

October 18, 2000