Hoff-Barthelson Music School Students to Perform World Premiere at Annual Festival for Contemporary Music

Hoff-Barthelson Music School's Annual Festival of Contemporary Music takes place online via Zoom beginning Wednesday, May 12, 2021, through Sunday, May 16, 2021, and will include a world premiere commissioned by the School.

This year, because of restrictions cause by the pandemic, the festival will be held online and will consist of eight faculty and student recitals featuring works composed between 1920 and the present day. Faculty scheduled to perform include Louise Dubin, Michael Finckel, and Peter Seidenberg, cello; April Johnson and Eriko Sato, violin; Jennifer Tibbetts, voice; Derek Cooper, brass; and Tomoko Uchino, piano.

The world premiere of composer and HBMS faculty member Derek Cooper's "Fantasy on Open Strings" for Viola Ensemble will be performed by the HBMS Viola Club at the Faculty and Student recital on Thursday, May 13, 2021, at 8:00 pm. Mr. Cooper began conceiving "Fantasy" by considering a piece that could be both approachable for beginner players and challenging for experienced violists. "Fantasy on Open Strings" accomplishes this by composing music around the open strings of the viola; C, G, D, and A.

"This led me first to the overtone series being built out of an open C string. From there, the piece explores different styles of music similar to Henry Purcell's "Fantasy Upon One Note," the piece that inspired this new work," states Cooper. "While the more experienced performers are able to play fast sweeping lines, beginner players never need to leave the open C string and instead get to explore different ways of playing the string."

Also included on several of the recitals will be works composed by HBMS students enrolled in the School's Compose Yourself! Project. This unique project provides a rare opportunity for students to receive feedback from renowned, award-winning composers on works that they have written. The guest composers for 2021 were Andrea Clearfield and Saad Haddad.

"The School's relationship with Andrea and Saad is made possible by Copland House, with which Hoff-Barthelson has had a long and mutually beneficial relationship," says Peter Seidenberg, Artistic Director of the Festival. "Both organizations are devoted to introducing students and audiences to contemporary music and to the nurturing and development of emerging composers."

Visit www.hbms.org for a complete list of recitals and to receive Zoom links.

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