The Department of Music presents the Honors Showcase, featuring students selected by audition to present their creative work.
The Maryland Arts Summit, produced by Maryland Citizens for the Arts and hosted at UMBC, is a statewide conference presented by and for the Maryland arts sector, which includes, but is not limited to, arts advocates, arts educators and teaching artists, independent artists, arts organizations, youth, community stakeholders, arts and entertainment districts, county arts agencies of Maryland, public artists, boards of directors, and folklife artists.
Whistling Hens, a duo featuring the unusual combination of clarinet and soprano, premieres a new work by composer Kate Soper entitled Chutes and Ladders. A commission made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by the Mellon Foundation, the work invites us to step into a unique soundscape of vocalizations, quarter tones, multiphones, and speak-singing.
Join us for an afternoon of poetry, art songs and discussion, entitled Mapping Ancestral Discoveries From The Eastern Shore to New York in Poetry and Song, as composer, poet, and scholar Toni Lester shares her journey of discovery about ancestors who migrated from DelMarVA to New York to form one of the oldest, continuous free Black communities in the North. This event will feature baritone Brandon Bell, soprano Adia Evans, and pianist/percussionist Bill Solomon.
The Department of Music presents clarinetist Natalie Groom and pianist Hui-Chuan Chen, whose program Composers Unheard, Composers Celebrated spotlights works for clarinet and piano that have been previously under appreciated. The performance will include works by Marie-Elisabeth von Sachsen-Meiningen, a Prussian princess; Mojgan Misaghi, a member of the Iranian Female Composers Association; Ke-Chia Chen, professor at Curtis Institute of Music; Fazil Say, world-renowned Turkish piano soloist; and Gwyneth Walker, a prolific American composer known primarily for her choral works.
The Department of Music presents the Anansi Trio, a group of like-minded musicians drawing from a wide range of global traditions. With Mark Merella on the hybrid drum kit, Larry Melton on bass, and UMBC's Matt Belzer on saxophones, they create music that is unique and experimental yet remains accessible. The trio's program will feature creative interpretations of works by Daymé Arocena, Nate Smith, and Matt Belzer
The Department of Music presents pianist Teodora Adzharova, who will perform a program of works by Michael Hersch, Galina Ustvolskaya, and a newly commissioned composition by Richard Drehoff Jr. Laureate of numerous national and international competitions, Adzharova has had a career that has taken her to multiple performance venues in the United States, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Macedonia and the Czech Republic.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Matthew Belzer.
Harpist Jacqueline Pollauf gives a solo recital showcasing the many capabilities of the harp, performing a variety of pieces, both original works and transcriptions, including music by Gabriel Fauré, Nino Rota, and Micheline Kahn. Throughout the program, Pollauf will offer remarks and insights about the works presented.
Join us for UMBC’s 13th annual Livewire new music festival, an exploration of new sounds presented in six concerts over three days, October 24 to 26. Livewire 14: Resounding celebrates the work and completion of I Resound Press, an online archive of scores and recordings by women composers selected for their imagination, innovation and craft. Featured guest composer Annea Lockwood will interact with students and audiences in a variety of events, including sound installations, public conversations, open rehearsals, and a concluding portrait concert of her recent works. Hub New Music, Sofia Kamayianni and Tim Ward, Caballito Negro, and the UMBC faculty contemporary ensemble Ruckus will present concerts including works from the I Resound archive by composers Rahilia Hasanova, Patricia Repar, Sofia Kamayianni, Linda Dusman, Anna Rubin, Lois V Vierk, Ruth Lomon, Caterina Calderoni, Jane Rigler, and Eleanor Hovda. Livewire 14 features premieres by Hasanova, Dusman, Alexandra Gardner, and others, including Sam Garrett, the commissioned alumnus composer for 2024.
The 14th annual Livewire new music festival kicks off with a concert by the Ruckus ensemble, featuring works by Linda Dusman, Alexandra Gardner, Sam Garrett ’11, music, Patrice Repar, and Anna Rubin. The ensemble features UMBC faculty Teodora Adzharova, piano; Lisa Cella, flutes; Patrick Crossland, trombone; Juan Sebastián Delgado, cello; Dustin Donahue, percussion; Natalie Groom, clarinet; Gita Ladd, cello; and Airi Yoshioka, violin.
The second of six concerts in the Livewire 14: Resounding new music festival will feature works by UMBC students and music alumni.
The third of six events in the Livewire 14: Resounding new music festival features Sofia Kamayianni and Tim Ward, who will present their jointly developed Piano+ system. The Piano+ system seeks to extend the sound world of the piano using technology while at the same time closely integrating into conventional piano performance techniques the control and shaping of the new timbres made possible. In this way the extension of the piano offers radical new possibilities to a performer while not dramatically changing their physical practice on the instrument.
The fourth of six events in the Livewire 14: Resounding new music festival features Hub New Music with performances of works by Caterina Calderoni, Rahilia Hasanova, Eleanor Hovda, Sofia Kamayianni, and Nina C. Young. Hub will be joined by guest artists Teodora Adzharova and Dustin Donahue.
The Cabalitto Negro ensemble, featuring Tessa Brinckman, flutes, and Terry Longshore, percussion, are joined by UMBC faculty Lisa Cella, flutes, and Dustin Donahue, percussion, for a concert of works by Emma O’Halloran, Jane Rigler, Will Rowe, Stuart Saunders Smith, and featuring the East Coast premiere of Birds, Bees, Electric Fish by Juri Seo.
