NIU’s 10th annual New Music Festival begins Wednesday

DeKALB – Northern Illinois University’s annual New Music Festival will celebrate a decade this year as the event kicks off Wednesday.

The 10th annual festival will run three consecutive evenings of music from Wednesday through Friday, according to a news release.

The programs begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are available through the online School of Music Box Office.

The festival begins Wednesday evening in the Music Building Recital Hall. The program will feature electroacoustic music by guest composers Alexis C. Lamb and Elainie Lillios, as well as works by NIU faculty and student composers Mark Snyder, Brian Penkrot and David Maki, Ethan Patterson, and Elena Stavropolous. NIU’s Christopher Scanlon and Jonah Payne, and guest cellist Nick Photinos are featured soloists.

Lamb and Lillios will offer a talk on the art of listening at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in the All-School Convocation at the NIU School of Music’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The presentation will feature segments of music by both composers performed during the festival as well as philosophical ideas forged by pioneering American composer Pauline Oliveros.

The festival’s second concert is Thursday evening in the NIU Concert Hall. The program will feature performances by the NIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir, the NIU Philharmonic, the NIU Percussion Ensemble, the NIU New Music Ensemble of music by John Cage, Alexis C. Lamb, several NIU student composers, and special guest Argentinean choral composer, Santiago Veros.

The composition department is offering a composition seminar featuring both Lillios and Lamb at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, in the Music Building Room 202.

The New Music Festival will close with a concert hall program featuring the Avalon String Quartet, guest artists Daphne Gerling and I-Jen Fang, the NIU Steelpan Graduate Quartet, student soloist Jonah Payne, and Festival Artistic Director Gregory Beyer on Friday evening.

A post-festival reception will be held at Tapa La Luna, 226 E. Lincoln Highway in DeKalb.

For information, call 815-753-7981 or email gbeyer@niu.edu.