Past Series

Big Spinoff

The New Music at Lawrence series culminates with the Lawrence University premiere of acclaimed American composer Charles Wuorinen’s Big Spinoff for sixteen players. Faculty from every instrumental department of the Conservatory of Music will join together in performing the work, which was composed for a consortium of organizations of which Lawrence was a member including Alarm Will Sound, Arizona State University, and several others. The piece, which will be conducted by Director of Bands Andrew Mast, is an enlargement of his 1981 work, Spinoff. Also included on the program is an eclectic mix of 21st-century chamber works showcasing the members of the celebrated Lawrence faculty, including works by Asha Srinivasan and Howard Niblock.

Sunday, April 21, 2013
8:00 p.m.
Harper Hall
Music Drama Center

Crossroads: The Music of Evan Chambers

Top Lawrence musicians join acclaimed composer Evan Chambers for an evening of chamber music inspired by such diverse sources as Irish traditional music, gamelan, hymnody, and Albanian folk music. At the crossroads of contemporary classical and traditional music, Mr. Chambers’ compositions fuse evocative lyricism with invigorating emotional power. The concert features Crossroads, Come Down Heavy, Cold Water, Dry Stone, and other works for instrumental ensemble.

Sunday, January 20, 2013
8:00 p.m.
Harper Hall
Music Drama Center

NOW Ensemble

“Terrific…both powerful and new.” –The Wall Street Journal

NOW ENSEMBLE is a dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century. With a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, the ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members. Increasingly focusing on work that fearlessly crosses boundaries of musical genre and artistic media, NOW Ensemble’s recent collaborations span work with home-made electronics guru Dan Deacon to multimedia opera with producer Beth Morrison and Missy Mazzoli.

Thursday, November 15, 2012
8:00 p.m.
Harper Hall
Music Drama Center

Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire featuring guest artist Lucy Shelton

100 years after its creation, Pierrot Lunaire still shocks and fascinates. Come hear Schoenberg’s seminal song cycle performed by acclaimed soprano Lucy Shelton, known for her charismatic and hair-raising interpretation of the work.

Sunday, October 7
8 p.m.
Harper Hall,
Music Drama Center

Featuring Lawrence faculty musicians: Erin Lesser, flutes • David Bell, clarinets • Samantha George, violin • Matt Michelic, viola • Janet Anthony, cello • Catherine Kautsky, piano • John Daniel, trumpet • Dane Richeson, percussion

Erica Scheinberg will moderate a discussion with the musicians during the concert.

UI Center for New Music

From the cartoon music-inspired athleticism of John Adams’ Chamber Symphony No. 1 to the haunting spectra of Zach Zubow’s Mirage of the Mountains, the University of Iowa’s Center for New Music brings an exhilarating range of contemporary expressions to the final New Music at Lawrence concert. Longtime champions of music by living composers, the thirty-member ensemble rounds out the program with director David Gompper’s intense and mysterious Musica Segreta for piano quartet and the miniaturist artistry of Croquis for string trio by British composer Jeremy Dale Roberts.

Saturday, April 21
8:00 p.m.
Lawrence Memorial Chapel

Simultaneous Worlds

Simultaneous Worlds, presented on Friday, January 20 at 8 p.m. in Harper Hall, features flutist Erin Lesser and pianist Michael Mizrahi of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, along with percussionist Greg Beyer ‘95, professor of music at Northern Illinois University and founding member of the flute/percussion duo Due East.

Highlighting the concert will be a performance of Littoral, an immersive work by American composer John Supko that features original video artwork by Kristine Marx and poetry by Cees Nooteboom. Called “spellbindingly beautiful” (Time Out New York), Littoral is the centerpiece of Due East’s recent New Amsterdam Records release, Drawn Only Once. Multi-media artist Lawton Hall ‘10 and dance professor Rebecca Salzer will join Due East for a performance of NYC composer Michel Galante’s mysterious work, Incantations.

Read about Simultaneous Worlds in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

Simultaneous Worlds
Friday, January 20, 8:00 p.m.
Harper Hall

Deep Listening Band in Concert

Inaugural concert of the New Music at Lawrence series - Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster work with Lawrence students—including IGLU (Improvisation Group of Lawrence University) and the composition studio—in a variety of masterclasses and workshops during their stay here. The Deep Listening Band will surround the audience in an immersive musical experience. Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster create oceans of sound in reverberant spaces. In this case, Memorial Chapel will be electronically transformed into a hall with 20 seconds or more of reverb. Oliveros formed the concept of “deep listening” to describe the active art of listening. She is the one of most important composers of the 20th century, and we are honored to welcome her to Lawrence. Dempster, who will play both trombone and didjeridu, thrilled audiences during his last visit to Lawrence.

Thursday, October 27
Brian Pertl – Stuart Dempster Recital
Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 9:30-10:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 29
Deep Listening Band in Concert
Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 8:00 p.m.