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.

The final event of the Livewire 14: Resounding new music festival presents the work of featured New Zealand-born American composer Annea Lockwood, who brings vibrant energy, ceaseless curiosity, and a profound sense of openness to her music. Lockwood’s lifelong fascination with the visceral effects of sound in our environments and through our bodies — the way sounds unfold and their myriad “life spans” — serves as the focal point for works ranging from concert music to performance art to multimedia installations.