Glen Whitehead, associate professor, Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Peak FreQuency artistic director, announced concert dates that feature UCCS faculty, university alumni, regional and national professional artists, some with ties to the university.
“We wish to celebrate the relatively short history of the VAPA Music Program at UCCS, the dynamic directions and creative shape music is taking on this campus, artists and composers who have visited us in the past, and perhaps most exciting, a promising future with a beautiful Ent Center for the Arts just over the horizon.”
Performance dates are April 11, 15, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25. Performance times, locations and other details follow.
7:30 p.m. April 11, UCCS Heller Center for the Humanities, “Sone.”
“Sone” features Jane Rigler, assistant professor, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Janet Feder, Denver, Evan Mazunik, Denver, and Mark Harris, Denver. “Sone” is an ensemble of diverse instrumentalists dedicated to making music spontaneous and adventurous. “Sone” traverses concepts of notation, space, time and texture across each unique performance landscape.
- 7:30 p.m. April 15, Centennial Hall Auditorium, Honors Ensemble / Student Performer Showcase
UCCS student music ensembles in jazz, chamber, electroacoustic and soloists will perform a variety of repertoire and original compositions.
- 7:30 p.m. April 17, Centennial Hall Auditorium, VAPA Music Alumni Concert.
The concert will feature Britt Ciampa, class of 2013, drums/percussion; Elizabeth Erickson, class of 2012, piano; Putu Lamaswan, class of 2012, drums/percussion; and Jay Baker, class of 2012, bass. The concert will feature improvisations and compositions from these recent alumni who are currently performing regionally and nationally.
- 7:30 p.m. April 18, Centennial Hall Auditorium, Philip Blackburn and Friends.
Blackburn, president of the American Composers Forum and record label Innova, began his Sun Palace film project while an artist in residence at UCCS and also composed the “Sun Palace Hyper Opera.” Blackburn’s father, Alex, is a UCCS English professor emeritus. Five descendants were patients at the Cragmor Sanatorium. Blackburn, an internationally recognized composer, along with UCCS music faculty members and students in MUS 4300 Creative Music Ensemble and MUS 2310 VAPA Vocal Ensemble will present a variety of original compositions and screen his film “The Sun Palace” which is based on the history of the Cragmor Sanatorium. UCCS is built on the grounds of the former tuberculosis care facility.
- 7:30 p.m. April 23, University Hall 168, Morris Palter, percussion, and Rhonda Taylor, saxophone.The event will also feature the grand opening of music event space in University Hall.
Solo artists Palter, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Taylor, Las Cruces, N.M., will perform music by Vinko Globokar and Mark Applebaum. Taylor will also share music from her album “Nocturne” featuring saxophone and electroacoustics.
- 7:30 p.m. April 24, The Mezzanine, 20 S. Tejon Street, Colorado Springs, Indigo Mist, the Cuong Vu Trio with Richard Karpen.
In collaboration with the Colorado Springs Conservatory, UCCS will feature Grammy Award winner trumpet artist and composer Cuong Vu. Vu is recognized by jazz critics as a leader in musical innovation. He will perform with Richard Karpen, piano and live electronics; Like Bergman, bass; and Ted Poor, drums.
- 7:30 p.m., April 25, El Pomar Center, first floor. Festival Finale: Ensemble PeakFrequency and Guests.
Resident faculty group Ensemble Peak FreQuency – Whitehead, Rigler and Colin McAlister will be joined by Cuong Vu, lecturer Morris Palter, a Canadian percussionist, saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, pianist Adam Hooper, a member of the class of 2014, and Lee Gardner, bassist
The group will perform new works written in honor of the UCCS 50th anniversary including a world premiere commissioned for this event, “Ecoacoustic Concerto (Eagle Rock) for Two Trumpets, Ensemble and Sonic Geography,” by award winning composer Matthew Burtner of the University of Virginia. The work was commissioned for this festival and written for Whitehead and Cuong Vu. This piece will feature soundscapes recorded in the environment of the Heller Center for Arts & Humanities. Burtner visits UCCS each summer to co-teach sonic landscapes, an innovative cross-disciplinary course between music, geography and humanities with Whitehead and Brandon Vogt, assistant professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. Additionally, Whitehead will unveil a new campus theme song.
For more information about the festival, contact Colin McAlister, lecturer, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, (719) 255-5134.
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