NEXTET, a premier new music ensemble at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Doc Rando Hall of the Beam Music Center on the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ campus.
The performance will feature three compositions by 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ artist-in-residence Marta Ptaszynska, including "I. Ajikan" (Unfolding Light) for flute and percussion; "Un Grand Sommeil Noiro," a song on words of Paul Verlaine for soprano, flute, and harp; and a percussion extravaganza "Linear Percussion in Space." The concert is free and open to the public.
Other works on the program will include Walter Blanton's "NEXTET for Chamber Ensemble" and Virko Baley's "Treny I & II." Featured performers include sopranos Christine Seitz and Jeanette Fontaine, cellists Natalia Khoma and Andrew Smith, flutists Kate Turner and Maribel Pluenneke, harpist Emily Montoya, percussionist Joni Declercq, and the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ percussion ensemble conducted by Dr. Timothy Jones.
Ptaszynska, a composer, percussionist, and professor of music, was born in 1943 in Warsaw, Poland. She completed her musical studies at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and in Poznan and received three Master of Arts diplomas with distinction in music theory, composition, and percussion performance. She has lived in the U.S. since 1972, where she came on the invitation of the Cleveland Institute of Music to finalize her studies in percussion performance and composition.
Ptaszynska's works have been presented all over the world at many prestigious festivals such as ISCM World Music Days in Stockholm, Brussels, and Oslo; the Salzburg Festival; Warsaw Autumn in Poland; Gulbekian Foundation Festival in Portugal, and many others. She received her most recent commission in 2000 from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for an orchestral work "Inverted Mountain," which premiered in March 2001.
