Free multimedia concert celebrates new music

KALAMAZOO--Guest artists John Sampen, saxophone, and Mark Bunce, composer and engineer, will present a free multimedia concert at 8:15 p.m. Friday, March 30, in Western Michigan University's Dalton Center Lecture Hall.

The concert is presented as part of the 2012 New Sounds Festival, a collaborative festival hosted by WMU and Fontana Chamber Arts celebrating contemporary music. The unique program, Mysterious Morning: Spiritual Music of Asia and the Americas, will feature projected visuals, interactive electronics and theatrical elements. Representative composers include John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, Morton Subotnick, Fuminori Tanada, Marilyn Shrude, William Bolcom and Bunce.

Sampen is recognized as an outstanding artist in contemporary music. He has commissioned and premiered more than 80 works for saxophone, and is a Distinguished Research Artist Professor at Bowling Green State University.

Bunce is a composer and the recording engineer and electronics technician for the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music as well as the director of recording services at Bowling Green State University. A 30-year veteran of the recording industry, Bunce has engineered CDs and recordings for such labels as Newport Classics, Centaur Records, Opus One, Sony Classics, Koch International, Albany, AMP Records, Orion, Neuma, Vox and Capstone.

For more information, contact Meredith Bradford, concerts assistant, at @email or (269) 387-4678.