New Music Festival explores ‘Method in Madness'

BOWLING GREEN, O.—The 2011 Bowling Green New Music Festival – now in its 32nd year — will showcase the work of more than 25 guest composers and performers Oct. 12-15. The international festival includes concerts, lectures and workshops, organized around the theme “Method in Madness,” celebrating music for unusual or exceptional groups of instruments and innovative modes of presentation.

This year's featured guests include Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang and the ensemble Mantra Percussion.

Organized by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music (MACCM) and the College of Musical Arts at BGSU, the festival supports the creation of new work and engages both the University and city communities in the process of music appreciation and awareness.

Highlights of this year’s festival include nine world premiere performances of works by David Lang, Brad Balliett, Ge Gan-ru, Matthew Roddie, Christopher Dietz, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jeffrey Brooks, James Mobberley and Mayke Nas.

Festival goers can also enjoy an evening of avant-garde jazz with saxophonist Tony Malaby and his trio Tamarindo, a workshop on creativity and improvisation in music education by Christopher Azzara, a concert of music and film at the Clazel Theater in downtown Bowling Green, and the U.S. premiere of Michael Gordon’s “Timber,” a concert-length work for six percussionists.

In addition, the festival will present a concert of works by students from the Toledo School for the Arts enrolled in the “MACCM Institute” program, a composition and creativity workshop funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Founded in 1980, the New Music Festival has hosted such notable composers as John Adams, Milton Babbitt, John Cage and Joan Tower.

Most festival events are free and open to the public. For ticket information, contact the Moore Musical Arts Center box office at 419-372-8171 or 1-800-589-2224.

For a complete schedule of festival events, contact the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at 419-372-2685.

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Editor’s Note: Biographies of a number of the composers and performers are available. Please call Bonnie Blankinship, 419-372-2618.

(Posted September 21, 2011 )