Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Oregon professor guest composer at WSU music fest

The Spokesman-Review

University of Oregon professor David Crumb is the guest composer for this year’s Festival of Contemporary Art Music, today through Thursday at Washington State University.

The festival begins today with concerts of student work at 11:10 a.m. in Kimbrough Concert Hall on the Pullman campus, and a recital of faculty compositions at 8 p.m. in Bryan Hall Auditorium.

Works by Crumb will be performed by WSU faculty in a concert Saturday at 8 p.m. in Kimbrough Concert Hall. All concerts are free and open to the public.

“Crumb’s compositions draw upon various musical materials, from the raw, driving rhythms and dissonances of Stravinsky to the elegant romanticism of the music of Chopin,” says Charles Argersinger, professor of composition at WSU and founder of the festival, now in its 16th year.

Crumb, the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb, holds degrees in composition and cello from the Eastman School and a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Oregon faculty in 1997.

He has received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has had works commissioned by such groups as the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For more information online, see libarts.wsu.edu/artmusic/.

Multi-instrumentalist Todd Green at WSU

Todd Green will perform on a variety of ethnic instruments, along with one-of-a-kind custom-built instruments, in a concert Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Washington State University’s Bryan Hall Theater.

Green, who studied with jazz guitar greats Pat Metheny and George Benson, was a studio musician for many years before he moved to Montana and began focusing on acoustic music with a world flavor.

On Wednesday, he will play string, flute and percussion instruments from around the world, from the Middle Eastern oud to South American charango to East Indian tablas. The performance will be enhanced by digital samplers.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students (free to WSU students), through TicketsWest outlets (325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).