As part of the annual NewSound Festival, SUNY Fredonia’s Ethos New Music Society will be presenting a concert with saxophonist Tim McAllister and composer Roshanne Etezady on Friday, Feb. 14, and an evening of discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky on Monday, Feb. 17.
Both events are in Rosch Recital Hall at 8 p.m., and admission is free and open to the public.
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| Tim McAllister |
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| Roshanne Etezady |
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| Steven Stucky |
In addition to faculty composer Dr. Rob Deemer, also featured at the events will be SUNY Fredonia faculty clarinetist Dr. Andrew Seigel, violist David Rose, violinist Dr. David Colwell and pianist Dr. Dmitri Novogorodsky.
Soprano saxophone chair of the renowned PRISM Quartet and internationally-acclaimed soloist, Dr. McAllister has been hailed as “one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation” by the New York Times. Since his solo debut at age sixteen with the Houston Civic Symphony, his career has taken him throughout world, garnering prizes at many prestigious national and international competitions. McAllister serves as associate professor of saxophone and co-director of the Institute for New Music at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, and he spends his summers as a distinguished Valade Fellow/Instructor of Saxophone for the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has premiered over 150 new works by today’s most eminent and emerging composers. In August 2013, he gave the world premiere of John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
As a young musician, Dr. Etezady studied piano and flute, and developed an interest in many different styles of music, from the musicals of Stephen Sondheim to the 1980s power ballads and Europop of her teenage years. One fateful evening evening in 1986, she saw Philip Glass and his ensemble perform as the musical guests on “Saturday Night Live.” This event marked the beginning of her interest in contemporary classical music, as well as her interest in being a composer. She has been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Dr. Etezady's music has earned recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Korean Society of 21st Century Music, the Jacob K. Javits Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). One of the founding members of the Minimum Security Composers Collective, Etezady holds academic degrees from Northwestern University and Yale University, and completed her doctorate at the University of Michigan.
Mr. Stucky is one of America’s most highly regarded and frequently performed living composers. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for his Second Concerto for Orchestra, he is a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, a director of New Music USA, a board member of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also active as a conductor, writer, lecturer and teacher. As a co-commission by two of America’s foremost orchestras, his four-movement Symphony (2012) was showcased twice in 2012-2013, with Gustavo Dudamel leading its world premiere in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s season-opening concerts, and Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic debuting it in New York two months later.
For over 20 years, Stucky enjoyed the longest relationship on record between a composer and an American orchestra: in 1988 André Previn appointed him Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; later, as the ensemble’s Consulting Composer for New Music, he worked closely with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen on contemporary programming, the awarding of commissions, and programming for nontraditional audiences. Stucky has also fulfilled commissions for many other major American orchestras, including those of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Florida West Coast (Sarasota), Minnesota, Philadelphia, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Washington, D.C.; and for such celebrated solo artists as pianist Emanuel Ax, recorder soloist Michala Petri, guitarist Manuel Barrueco, baritone Sanford Sylvan, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and cellist Elinor Frey.
Among his other honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP Victor Herbert Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His first Concerto for Orchestra was one of two finalists for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Stucky has taught at Cornell University since 1980, chaired the Music Department from 1992 to 1997, and now serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition.
The NewSound Festival, hosted by the student organization Ethos, showcases the music of the 20th and 21st century by featuring composers, performers, and lecturers from across the country and is made possible by the Student Association. To learn more, contact Dr. Rob Deemer at deemer@fredonia.edu.
