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USC faculty and local musicians will celebrate spring on April 13 with contemporary classical works at the final concert of the 2005-06 Southern Exposure New Music Series.
"Spring Fever," set for 7:30 p.m. in the School of Music's Recital Hall, will feature three works for two pianos and one piece for two pianos and percussion. The piano duos are USC assistant professors Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers, as well as assistant professor Lynn Kompass and Columbia pianist Phillip Bush. The percussionists are assistant professor Scott Herring and Columbia resident Greg Apple.
"They are all incredible musicians," said John Fitz Rogers, artist director for the series and an assistant professor of music. "Southern Exposure has brought in many wonderful visiting artists, but this is an opportunity to showcase the world-class talent we have here at USC and in Columbia. The performers are as dynamic and diverse as the program. They have played all over the world in major venues, and we're thrilled to feature them."
The concert will open with Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, by Frederic Rzewski. The piece evokes an old folk-blues melody and was popularized by folksinger Pete Seeger in the 1960s.
"It's a musical depiction of a cotton mill in Winnsboro, N.C.," Rogers said. "Frederic Rzewski is an important American composer and a virtuoso pianist in his own right. It's a fireworks kind of piece."
The first half of the program will continue with Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, by Hungarian-born composer Bela Bartok, which is considered one of the landmark works of the 20th century. "The piece owes a lot of its musical material to Hungarian folk melodies," Rogers said. "So it's a nice contrast between an American folk tune to open the program and then music inspired by Hungarian folk songs, contrasting the new and old."
Kilter, by Mary Ellen Childs, a quiet and evocative piece based on rhythmically interlocked patterns, will open the second half of the program.
The final piece on the program will return to Eastern Europe with a two-piano arrangement of the orchestral ballet, The Rite of Spring, by Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky.
"For people used to hearing The Rite of Spring in its usual orchestral version, hearing it in Stravinsky's own two-piano arrangement, I think, reveals a lot of harmonic and rhythmic subtleties that sometimes get a bit blurred in the orchestral version," Rogers said.
"It can be a very revealing way to hear this piece, and, of course, it's incredibly exciting music and arguably the most important piece of classical music written in the last 100 years."
Rogers launched the Southern Exposure New Music Series in March 2001 to highlight a broad range of contemporary classical music.
"The name of the series, Southern Exposure, plays on the idea of exposing audiences to wonderful repertoire that might be somewhat unfamiliar, but also exposing visiting artists to the enthusiastic audiences we have here, as well as featuring the outstanding talent we have on our School of Music faculty and in the Columbia community," Rogers said.
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Scott Herring, left, Lynn Kompass, Greg Apple, Marina Lomazov, Phillip Bush, and Joseph Rackers will perform at the "Spring Fever" concert of the Southern Exposure New Music Series.
