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Three works by Curtis-Smith presented SundayJuly 10, 2007 KALAMAZOO--Fontana Chamber Arts is presenting a concert featuring the music of Western Michigan University's C. Curtis-Smith at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 15, at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. Concert tickets are $18 for adults and $5 for students and children and can be purchased at www.fontanachamberarts.org or by calling Fontana Arts at (269) 382-7774. Three large works by Curtis-Smith, WMU professor of music, will be performed. "A Civil War Song Cycle" for soprano and piano will begin the concert. The cycle is a setting of seven poems by Herman Melville and Walt Whitman, and traces the emotional and chronological sequence of the American Civil War. The second piece is a premiere, titled "Tulips," commissioned by Fontana Chamber Arts for this concert. It is a setting of Sylvia Plath's vivid poem of the same name and is scored for soprano, string quartet and piano. The final piece on the program is "A Farewell" for horn, string quartet and piano. WMU School of Music students will make up the string quartet of violinists Mialtin Zhezha and Francois Henkins, violist Arturo Ziraldo, and cellist Dan Comiskey. Naoko Imafuku will be at the piano, and music faculty horn player Lin Foulk will give a solo performance. Guest soprano Mary Bonhag from the University of Michigan will sing in both the "Song Cycle" and "Tulips," and composer Curtis-Smith will provide piano accompaniment for the "Song Cycle." An internationally recognized composer, Curtis-Smith is the recipient of more than 100 grants, awards and commissions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, the Prix du Salabert, and grants from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, and most recently commissions from the Barlow Endowment and the Harvard University Fromm Foundation. Please note: the July 8 edition of the Kalamazoo Gazette incorrectly listed the time for the performance, which begins at 3 p.m. Also, road construction on North Westnedge has been completed, and it is no longer necessary to use detours to the Nature Center. Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu WMU News |
