CIM Presents Diverse New Music Series This Season

CIM explores the incredible diversity of contemporary music this semester with performances by two of today’s leading composers, the performance of a late masterpiece by one of the 20th century’s most iconoclastic composers and an exciting collaboration between CIM student composers and CIA student filmmakers.

The New Music Series is directed by Dr. Keith Fitch, head of the composition department at CIM and the Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition. Learn more about Dr. Fitch here.

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On Wednesday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Kulas Hall, CIM celebrates the 75th birthday of the father of Neo-Romanticism, David Del Tredici. CIM alum Steven Smith, music director of the Santa Fe and Richmond Symphonies, returns to conduct the CIM Orchestra in Del Tredici’s stunning, Pulitzer-Prize winning In Memory of a Summer Day, featuring voice faculty member, Jung Eun Oh. Del Tredici single-handedly altered the course of composition in the United States with his monumental “Alice” series of works, which ignited the return to tonality. This event is presented at no charge.

On Monday, February 6 at 4:30 p.m., the composer will discuss his music in a symposium that is free and open to the public.

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On February 23, student composers will debut their works in a unique collaboration, The Planetarium Project, with student filmmakers at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) and with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH). CIM’s head of composition, Keith Fitch, made collaboration part of the curriculum for his students who created original scores for new 360° films created by CIA students. The fruits of their labor will debut on CMNH’s planetarium dome.

The Planetarium holds 87 and is wheelchair accessible. The films will run several times throughout the evening. After the premier, the films will become part of the Planetarium’s regular programming. Tickets are $10. Visit cim.edu for more information on this exciting event as it becomes available.

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On Sunday, March 25 at 4:00 p.m. in Mixon Hall, Pulitzer-Prize winner Steven Stucky is guest composer with the CIM New Music Ensemble as it performs four of his works, as well as a late work by long-time CIM faculty member, Donald Erb. Stucky’s music has been called “a feast of mood and color” and draws on both the past and contemporary techniques to create a rich tapestry of instrumental colors and sonorities. Erb’s powerful Sunlit Peaks and Dark Valleys includes a tribute to the children killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, framed by music of virtuosic intensity.

Stucky will discuss his approach to composition in an open symposium on Saturday, March 24 at 1:30 p.m.

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One week later, on Saturday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m., CIM concludes this season’s Harmonic Hues concert series at MOCA-Cleveland, with a performance of Morton Feldman’s epic four-hour For Philip Guston. This delicate, ravishing late work by one of the last century’s most eclectic composers is the centerpiece of an evening of celebration as MOCA closes its downtown location and prepares to move to University Circle.