FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact for Press: Tamar Fortgang, REDCAT's Publicity and Promotions Manager
fortgang@muse.calarts.edu / 661.253.7724 (Do Not Publish)

Ancient Voices of Children, Whales and the Misbegotten: Chamber Music of George Crumb at REDCAT--the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

View the event

February 22, 2005, Los Angeles, CA-On Thursday, March 3rd at 8:30 pm, CalArts School of Music performers pay tribute to the American composer and educator George Crumb in his 75th birthday year with a selection of his hauntingly beautiful and innovative chamber works, including Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1965, flute, clarinet, violin, piano); Ancient Voices of Children, Idyll for the Misbegotten, and Vox balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for three masked players.

For complex compositions that fascinate both players and audiences, Crumb received a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award among numerous other honors, and he is one of the most frequently performed composers in today's musical world. George Crumb's music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles, with references ranging from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-Western musics. Many of Crumb's works include unusual instrumentation, new playing techniques, theatrical presentation, and programmatic, symbolic, mystical and numerological elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores.

At 7:00 p.m., Martin Herman, Director of Composition and Theory at Cal State University Long Beach, will give a pre-concert lecture with a performance of the rarely performed early work, Eleven Echoes of Autumn.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts, is located in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Ticket prices range from $18-14; special student tickets available. Seating is general admission. Tickets may be purchased at the REDCAT box office--located at the corner of 2nd and Hope streets, by calling 213.237.2800 or at by clicking here.

REDCAT's 2004-05 season programming is generously supported by The Herb Alpert Foundation; American Center Foundation; The Annenberg Foundation; Anonymous; Asian Cultural Council; Bank Julius Baer; Booth Heritage Foundation; Canada Council for the Arts; Hyon Chough; CONACULTA; CNMAT; Cultural Contact, the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Culture; Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the French Consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco; Discover Signs; Robert B. Egelston; Étant Donnés, The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program of the French American Cultural Exchange; Factory Signage & Graphics; The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE; The J. Paul Getty Trust; Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater; The James Irvine Foundation; The Japan Foundation; The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles; Korea Art Foundation of America; The Korea Times; The Korea Culture and Art Foundation; Korea Foundation; The JL Foundation; The Sharon D. Lund Foundation; Meet The Composer, Creative Connections Program; México Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores; National Dance Project; National Endowment for the Arts; Pasadena Art Alliance; Wendy Keys and Donald A. Pels; Poets and Writers, Inc., through a grant received from The James Irvine Foundation; Lee and Lawrence J. Ramer; Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; Dee Sherwood; Shiseido Co., Ltd.; The Skirball Foundation; SRE/Consulate of Mexico; Eve Steele and Peter Gelles; Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Dallas Price-Von Breda; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Yamaha Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

The School of Music at CalArts strives to create a learning environment optimized to support the informed, creative music maker. We immerse our students in the front-line activities of their fields. High standards, combined with vital, contemporary initiatives that are informed by the achievements of our great traditions, along with tenacious insistence upon strong, individual initiative, are the School's hallmark and its formula for success.

California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, the first U.S. higher educational institution to integrate the visual and performing arts under one roof, is recognized as the nation's leading laboratory for the arts. Housing six schools-Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater--CalArts embraces creative cross-pollination among diverse art forms and traditions, and strongly encourages each artist to pursue his or her vision within a broad context of social and cultural understanding.

Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, REDCAT, is an interdisciplinary arts center that introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the performing, visual and media arts from around the world, and gives artists and future artists in this region the production opportunities and creative support they need to achieve national and international stature.

Back to REDCAT media/press room