Thursday April 10, 2008
New Music Festival concert, for saxophone and guitar / free
7:30 pm
Beckwith Recital Hall, Cultural Arts building
Free
For more information, call the Department of Music Events Hotline 910/962-7416 or 910/962-3415.
Additional support for the New Music Festival is provided by the Golden Gallery and the following UNC Wilmington departments and offices: the Office of International Programs, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Division for Public Service and Continuing Studies and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Composer David Kechley with the Ryoanji Duo
Dan Lipple and Timothy Ruedeman
Ryoanji Duo perform Bounce: Inventions, Interludes and Interjections.
Dan Lipple and Timothy Ruedeman perform Face of the Moon, Serenata per una Satellite, and Worker's Union.
CREATING A NEW GENRE: AN INTERNATIONAL GUITAR AND SAXOPHONE FESTIVAL
The New Music Festival features new works written specifically for the unusual pairing of guitar and saxophone. Festival activities include performances, master classes, panel discussions, and more. International guest artists and performers include Remeleixo (US); Degré 21 (Switzerland); Cuypers/Lop Duo (Spain); Duo Montagnard (USA); Ryoanji Duo (USA) - Department of Music Frank Bongiorno, saxophone and Robert Nathanson, guitar; composer David Kechley (USA).
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
DAVID KECHLEY
Since the 1968 premiere of Second Composition for Large Orchestra by the Seattle Symphony, David Kechley has produced works in all genres, which have been commissioned and performed by major orchestras, professional chamber groups, and university and college ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Kronos String Quartet, Vienna Saxophone Quartet, and the United States Military Academy Band.
Kechley's work has been recognized by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1979), grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976, 1979), and commissions from the Barlow Foundation (1998) and the New England Orchestra Consortium (2004). Five Ancient Lyrics on Poems by Sappho was first prize winner of the 1980-81 Shreveport Symphony Composers' Competition and Concerto for Violin and Strings won the 1979 Opus I Chamber Orchestra Contest for Ohio Composers. In the Dragon's Garden, a work for guitar and alto saxophone, was a winner of the 1994 Lee Ettelson Prize. Restless Birds before the Dark Moon, a work for alto saxophone and wind ensemble, was the winner of the 2000 National Band Association, William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest. Kechley received Artist Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1985 and the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 1995 and 2005. Most recently Kechley was selected as one of nine composers in the United States to be awarded a residency at Copeland House, the restored home of Aaron Copeland, where each resident is given the unique opportunity to live in the house and work in the studio of this great American composer. His music has been recorded and released on the Liscio Recordings, Albany Records, and Reference Recording.
Kechley served as Assistant Professor of Music at UNCW from 1979 to 1986. It was during this time that he composed "With Silent Delight" for the UNCW Chamber Choir in addition to Music for Saxophones and Concerto for Alto Saxophone for Frank Bongiorno, and Strumming: A Sonata for Solo Guitar and Carey Moonbeams for Robert Nathanson. Two of his orchestral works, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse and Clocks and More Clocks were also premiered during that time by the Wilmington Symphony with Joe Hickman conducting with Carol Talant, Narrator.
Professor Kechley was educated at the University of Washington, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Case Western Reserve University. He joined the Williams College faculty in 1986 and is currently Chair of the Music Department.
THE RYOANJI DUO
Although each performer has established solo careers, Frank Bongiorno and Robert Nathanson have performed as a duo since their debut performance at the Tenth World Saxophone Congress in Pesaro, Italy in 1992. Frequently invited to perform at saxophone, guitar, and composer conferences, the duo has also toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, with performances in Berlin, Valencia and Tarragona (Spain), Lubjiana (Slovenia), Montreal, San Francisco and Chicago.
As champions of new music, the Ryoanji Duo has commissioned award-winning composers such as David Kechley, Marilyn Shrude, Jing Jing Luo, Daniel Worley, Ernesto García de León, and others to write for this unique chamber group. In addition, in their searching to further expand the repertoire for the duo, they have transcribed and published select well-known "classics" by Mozart, Handel, Villa-Lobos, Ravel, Fauré and other significant composers of the past.
They have collaborated on two recordings and recently released a new CD of saxophone and guitar music written for them on the Liscio Recordings label entitled "Images". (http://www.lisciorecordings.com).
Both are currently on the faculty in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where they teach saxophone and classical guitar respectively, among other courses.
Frank Bongiorno is Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he has taught saxophone as well as jazz studies since 1982. During this time at UNCW, his saxophone as well as jazz students have received national and international recognition by such organizations as Down Beat magazine and Jazzfest USA, among others.
As an active recitalist, orchestral soloist, jazz artist, and clinician throughout the United States and abroad. Bongiorno's solo compact disc recordings include the critically acclaimed Classic Saxophone, Classic Saxophone, Vol. 2: Musica da camera, and Images (The Ryoanji Duo). He has also recorded a jazz play along CD of original jazz compositions as well as a master class CD on learning to improvise using transcriptions for Jazz Player Magazine and a saxophone vibrato master class CD released by the Saxophone Journal, among others.
He has numerous publications including saxophone transcriptions of "Classical" music, original compositions for jazz combo, paper presentations, as well as over 100 articles. He has been featured in a front cover interview in the January/February 1993 issue of the Saxophone Journal and is listed in the International Who's Who in Music, Seventeenth Edition and the Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century.
Robert Nathanson is an active recitalist, orchestral soloist, and ensemble performer giving concerts throughout the United States as well as performances in Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Slovenia and Canada. A champion of new music, Robert has commissioned, premiered and recorded works by David Kechley, Jing Jing Luo, Ernesto García de León, Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Cordero, Marilyn Shrude and several others. He has also been touring as part of the Ryoanji Duo (saxophone and guitar) and the North Carolina Guitar Quartet since 1992. He has recently released "Images", a CD recording of all new music for guitar and saxophone, and will soon release a CD of new music for soprano and guitar entitled "At the Edge of the Body's Night". Robert is a Liscio Recording artist (lisciorecordings.com). He has gained particular recognition in the Southeast as a past participant of both the Southern Arts Federation and North Carolina Touring Programs. Robert is Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
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