'New Music Salisbury' Concert Scheduled Thursday, April 16

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University Department of Music faculty and students showcase new and experimental music during the concert “New Music Salisbury” 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Holloway Hall Auditorium.

Performers include Dr. Danielle Cumming, Vendim Thaqi, Jerry Tabor, Eric Shuster and the SU Percussion Ensemble.

Cumming, director of the annual SU Guitar Festival, and Thaqi, the first musician in SU’s Young Artist in Residence program, present the duet “Farewell to Stromness,” written by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to protest proposed uranium mining near the town of Stromness in the Scottish Orkney Islands in 1980. (The plan eventually was withdrawn.)

Cumming also performs two pieces by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer: the avant garde “Canticum” (1968) and the neo-romantic “The Flight of the Lovers Through the Valley of Echos” from El Decameron Negro (1983). In addition, Thaqi plays “A Forge and a Scythe,” written for Cumming by her husband, former SU Department of Music faculty member Robert Baker.

A faculty ensemble, directed by Jerry Tabor, performs Tabor’s 1991 transmedia work “Outside Edge.” The piece — involving extreme serialization to allow the illusion of chaos — received a standing ovation during its last performance at SU several years ago for its unorthodox interpretation of sound categories.

The SU Percussion Ensemble presents a variety of new student works, including three premieres, and an encore performance of John Cage’s classic Credo in Us. In addition, SU senior music major Josh Kahn performs the solo “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion” by James Tenney.

Sponsored by the Department of Music, admission is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6385 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.