The Hartt School’s Composers Ensemble Presents HERE COMES EVERYBODY, 4/12

he Hartt School's Composers Ensemble presents Here Comes Everybody: A Celebration of the John Cage Centennial, a three-day festival celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of American composer John Cage. As the Hartford area's most extensive celebration of Cage's centennial, the Composers Ensemble and special guest performers present a wide variety of Cage's classic and rarely performed works, as well as music by composers who influenced him and who have been influenced by him. The first performance of this celebration is on Wednesday, April 11, at 8:00 PM in Berkman Recital Hall, Fuller Music Center, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford; for more information call 860-768-4228. The next is on Thursday, April 12, at 6:00 PM at the Centinel Hill Hall Auditorium, 11th floor, Capital Community College, 950 Main Street, Hartford; for more information call 860-906-5039. The celebration concludes on Friday, April 13, at 7:30 PM at La Paloma Coffee House, 405 Capital Avenue, Hartford (sponsored by Hartford Phase Shift); for more information call 860-768-4770. All events are free and open to the public.

One of the world's most performed, discussed, and celebrated composers, Cage challenged preconceptions of how music could be made and performed. His musical explorations have widely influenced not just composers and performers but artists in all disciplines. The Hartt School Composers Ensemble is proud to be a part of the global celebration of Cage's life and musical legacy in 2012. Some of Cage's best known works will be performed during the festival, including 4'33", Living Room Music, Variations I, excerpts from Sonatas and Interludes, and Atlas Eclipticalis. More rarely performed works will include The Harmony of Maine, ear for EAR, Five, Experiences 1 and 2, and 59 ½" for a string player. Members of the ensemble also will perform excerpts from Vexations and Sports et divertissements by Erik Satie, whom Cage championed. Guest performers joining the ensemble include Hartt faculty members Robert Black, double bass, and Benjamin Toth, percussion, and Hartt students Joey van Hassel, Michael Anderson, and Steven Serpa.

Co-directed by Hartt faculty member David Macbride and Brian Simalchik, the Hartt Composers Ensemble, now in its seventh year, is dedicated to the performance and study of contemporary music, and to providing a place for student composers to workshop compositional ideas in a performance environment. The ensemble rehearses and performs a wide variety of original works and works from the contemporary repertoire in a diversity of styles. Recent concerts have included works by Morton Feldman, John Zorn, Louis Andriessen, Erik Satie, and numerous brand new scores by Hartt composers.

The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts school of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 markEd Hartt's 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world. 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 about The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

Photo: John Cage (1986)
Photo credit: Akira Kinoshita; Courtesy of the John Cage Trust

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