Rice composer’s works to be performed by Shepherd School Symphony and Houston Symphony

DATE: Jan. 29, 2004
CONTACT: Ellen Chang
PHONE: (713) 348-6777
EMAIL: ellenc@rice.edu

RICE
COMPOSER’S WORKS TO BE PERFORMED BY
SHEPHERD SCHOOL
SYMPHONY AND HOUSTON SYMPHONY

Pierre Jalbert’s
award-winning piece "In Aeternam" will be performed for
the first time in Houston by the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra
in a concert Feb. 13 and 14.

The concert,
which also includes Carl Orff’s "Carmina Burana," begins
at 8 p.m. in Stude Concert Hall and also features the Rice Chorale
and the Houston Children’s Chorus.

Jalbert, an
associate professor of composition and music theory, won the $44,000
Masterprize composing competition for new classical music in October
2001.

His piece
"In Aeternam" (In Eternity) was originally commissioned
by Barry Jekowsky and the California Symphony as part of the orchestra’s
Young American Composer-in-Residence program.
The Masterprize is considered one of the world’s most important
international prizes for composers of classical music.

The winning
piece was written in memory of Jalbert’s niece who died at birth
over a decade ago. In the piece Jalbert aims to capture a range of
emotions, from sorrow and grief to shock and despair. It is also about
the celebration of life, with the memory of hearing his son Peter’s
heartbeat for the first time.

Jalbert, who
is also a composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra,
will have his orchestral work, "Les espaces infinis," performed
by the Houston Symphony on Feb. 21-23 with Hans Graf conducting.

"I feel
honored and extremely lucky that two of my orchestral works will receive
their Houston premieres so close together and by such great musicians,"
he said. "For a composer, it doesn’t get much better than this."

"Les
espaces infinis" was originally commissioned by David Alan Miller
and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The piece premiered in February
2001.

The work is
mostly about a quiet meditation on the nature of time and space, said
Jalbert. The title is derived from a quote of Blaise Pascal that says,
"Le silence eternel des espaces infinis m’effraie,"
which means "the
eternal silence of the infinite spaces terrify me."

"I wanted
to create that kind of sound – stillness," Jalbert said. "The
piece is meant to evoke a sense of spaciousness and timelessness."

He is currently
writing new works for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Ying
Quartet, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and new concertos for
hornist William Ver Meulen and marimbist Makoto Nakura.

Jalbert has
received numerous awards for his compositions, including a Guggenheim
fellowship, the Rome Prize, BMI and ASCAP Awards, a Society of Composer’s
Award, the Bearns Prize in Composition and a Tanglewood Music Center
fellowship.

His compositions
have been performed throughout the United States and abroad, including
two Carnegie Hall performances of his orchestral works. He has also
been commissioned and performed by violinist Midori, the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, the Houston Symphony, the Budapest Symphony,
the Albany Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony,
the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Fischer Duo, the Pittsburgh New Music
Ensemble, Zeitgeist, Network for New Music and the Maia String Quartet.
From 1999 to 2002, he served as composer-in-residence with the California
Symphony. Jalbert received his musical training at the Oberlin Conservatory
and the University of Pennsylvania.

For more information
about Jalbert, go to his web site at <www.ruf.rice.edu/~jalbert/>.

# # #