Hartt Hosts UNCLAIMED PROPERTY Composer-In-Residence Concert Series

The Hartt School presents one of few living preeminent composers, William Bolcom, for a week full of music making. The series begins on Tuesday, December 8, with a concert featuring the Contemporary Players Ensemble, and continues on Wednesday, December 9, with a performance by The Hartt Symphony Orchestra. On Thursday, December 10, Bolcom will perform with Joan Morris as part of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series. Wrapping up the week is the Hartt Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band on Friday, December 11. For tickets and information, call the University of Hartford Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 800.274.8587, or buy tickets online at www.hartford.edu/hartt. The "Unclaimed Property" concerts are generously sponsored by Susan Brake.

As an acclaimed pianist and Pulitzer Prize winning composer, William Bolcom has written cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies, and more. Bolcom was named the 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, was honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano. Bolcom began composition studies at the age of eleven with George FredRick McKay and John Verall at the University of Washington while continuing piano lessons with Madame Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College while working on his Master of Arts degree, with Leland Smith at Stanford University while working on his D.M.A., and with Olivier Messiaen and Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2éme Prix de Composition.

Contemporary Players Ensemble, Tuesday, December 8, at 7:30 PM in Millard Auditorium
The Contemporary Players Ensemble presents "ABC's of Postmodernism". This concert features three classic American postmodern composers. The Ensemble will perform John Adams' minimalist wild and wonderful work Grand Pianola Music; Bolcom's Commedia for "Almost" 18th Century Orchestra and Orphee Serenade; and Poem in October, by John Corigliano. Admission is free.

Hartt Symphony Orchestra, Wednesday, December 9, at 7:30 PM in Lincoln Theater
Under the direction of Christopher Zimmerman, the orchestra will perform works by William Bolcom, The Overture to Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss II, and Beethoven's Symphony No.2. Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups.

Bolcom and Morris, Thursday, December 10, at 7:30 PM in Millard Auditorium
Part of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series, made possible by a grant from the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the HartFord Foundation for Public Giving. For more than three decades composer and pianist William Bolcom and mezzo-soprano Joan Morris have been delighting audiences around the world with their witty and stylish interpretations of American Song. With more than two-dozen albums to their credit, including their best-selling Nonesuch disc After the Ball, Bolcom and Morris have established themselves as a unique resource for American music, performing repertoire from Stephen Foster to Stephen Sondheim. Admission is $30, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups. A special pre-concert dinner precedes the performance and begins at 6:00 PM in the University's 1877 Club. Visit www.hartford.edu/hartt for more information or to purchase tickets.

Hartt Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band, Friday, December 11, at 7:30 PM in Lincoln Theater
The Hartt Wind Ensemble will perform Bolcom's latest large-scale work, Symphony No.1 for Wind Ensemble (2009). Under the direction on Matt Aubin, The Hartt Symphony Band's performance "Connecting to the Composer" will include Milhaud's Suite Francaise. These pieces were selected because Bolcom studied with Milhaud and Suite Francaise is a core composition in band repertoire. Song, one Bolcom's original works for band, was written for the retirement concert of H. Robert Reynolds. In Evening's Stillness features alternate, 20th century compositional techniques employed by modern composers and was written by Joseph Schwantner, a contemporary of Bolcom's and a fellow Pulitzer Prize winner. Finally, Sousa's Pride of the Wolverines will round out the program and features one of Hartt's graduate conducting students, Adam Fontana, as a guest conductor. This march was selected specifically because Bolcom was a University of Michigan Wolverine for most of his career. Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups.

The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt's curriculum. For more information on The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

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