The Hamilton College Performing Arts will conclude the Contemporary Voices and Visions Series with the new music ensemble, eighth blackbird, on Saturday, April 21, at 8 p.m., at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts.
Taking their name from the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," eighth blackbird has a growing reputation for its astounding musical versatility as well as for its dedication to the works of today's composers. The sextet, currently ensemble-in-residence at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, was honored in 2000 with the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the first BMI/Boudleaux-Bryant Fund Commission. eighth blackbird is Molly Alicia Barth, flutes; Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets; Matthew Albert, violin & viola; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Matthew L. Duvall, percussion; and Lisa Kaplan, keyboards. Each of the members of eighth blackbird holds a bachelor's degree in music performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and artist diplomas in chamber music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory. The ensemble will make its Lincoln Center debut in Alice Tully Hall in the spring of 2002.
The Hamilton College program features the works of contemporary composers David Schober (b. 1974), Daniel Kellogg (b. 1976), Ricardo Zohn Muldoon (b.1962), Arturo Salinas (b. 1955), and Thomas Albert (b. 1948).
Daniel's Kellogg's composition, Divinum Mysterium (2000) is a Catherine Shouse Commission and was commissioned by eighth blackbird as part of the national series of works from Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA. This commissioning program is made possible by generous support from the Catherine Filene Shouse Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund and the Dayton Hudson Foundation.
The concert will also include a suite from Thomas Albert's Thirteen Ways, a work inspired by the Wallace Setvens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Thirteen Ways was commissioned by eighth blackbird and premiered by the ensemble in July 1997.
Tickets for the evening performance are $15 adult, $10 senior and $5 student. All seating is general admission. For reservations or for more information, call the Hamilton College Performing Arts ticket office at (315) 859-4331.
