University Artist Series presents the URI Contemporary Music Ensemble

University Artist Series concert to be held Jan. 28

Percussion Instruments

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 24, 2018 – The University of Rhode Island’s Department of Music will present its second University Artist Series concert Sunday, Jan. 28 at 3 p.m. at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Road.

The program will feature works by faculty composers: Eliane Aberdam’s, La Vallée du Grésivaudan and Kirsten Volness’ Winter Circle. The concert will also feature the classic, Vox Balenae (Voice of the Whale) by George Crumb. Other performances include Joan Tower’s Hommage to Olivier Messiaen, Tres Lent and a work composed by Ezra Sims based on the readings of Gertrude Stein, If I Told Him.

Performers include internationally recognized URI faculty pianists Kirsten Volness and Gayane Darakyan, percussionist Kyle Fortshoff, flutist Susan Thomas, tubist Gary Buttery, and cellist Theodore Mook.

Special guest artist, mezzo-soprano, Katherine Growdon will also perform. The New York Times said she was “incisively authoritative” in her performances with the Mark Morris Group, and is a regularly featured soloist with Boston’s flagship baroque orchestra Handel and Haydn Society.

The University Artist Series’ coordinator is URI faculty artist, cellist Theodore Mook.

“I’m playing two of my favorite pieces: George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, which is a modern classic that uses extended techniques and electronics to emulate the singing of whales and If I Told Him, which is a terrific musical imitation of a poetry recitation from Gertrude Stein,” Mook said.

“The program has five very distinct and vivid musical works that describe different moods, environments, states of mind and alternative experiences of time – almost like five very short films, each describing a separate world,” Mook said.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at the box office outside the Concert Hall. General admission $12, students $7, seniors (60 and older) are $7 and children 12 and under are free.

Alexa Stewart, intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at URI and Public Relations and Communication Studies Major, wrote this press release.