Music festival shines spotlight on the 20th century

Music festival shines spotlight on the 20th century

BY DAWN DORSEY
Special to the Rice News

The Shepherd School’s Chamber Music Festival, scheduled for May 4 through 7, brings about mixed emotions — pride of accomplishment for students and faculty, pleasure for the audience and a certain nostalgia for those who soon will be leaving Rice.

“This is the last performance at Rice for many seniors and graduate students,” said Norman Fischer, Shepherd School professor of cello and coordinator of the festival. “It is a celebration of the energies and talents of the students, particularly those who are leaving for new opportunities. This makes it a bittersweet occasion.”

The festival, which includes 11 concerts over the four days, spotlights the richly diverse chamber music styles of the 20th century. Each era — early, middle and late — of the century is represented.

“There is a lot of wonderful music here,” Fischer said. “Last century gave us many works of great creativity.”

Included on the program is music by Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Britten, Copland and Bartók. Other composers — perhaps not as well-known but first-rate nonetheless — include Quincy Porter, Zoltán Kodály, Sándor Veress, Stephen Hartke and John Harbison.

Among the noteworthy performances will be the May 4 evening concert featuring Novus, a trombone quartet, performing a concert of works composed especially for them. Novus, whose name means “new” or “unusual” in Latin, puts a fresh spin on music of the trombone, an instrument that has changed little in the past 500 years.

Fischer, who also coordinated last December’s chamber music festival, hopes the twice-yearly events will become regular components of the school’s schedule. Shepherd School faculty conceived the idea of festivals to consolidate and draw attention to the numerous chamber music concerts staged at the end of each term.

Concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, call 713-348-4933 or 713-348-8000.