Music07 kickoff Sunday

CCM's annual new-music festival kicks off this weekend with guest composers Zygmunt Krauze, Michael Nyman ("The Piano") and Frederic Rzewski. Look for daily events and concerts during the seven-day festival starting Sunday.

The program will feature performances by the acclaimed contemporary-music ensemble (and former Cincinnatians) eighth blackbird as well as local favorites, the Amernet String Quartet. Organized by composer and CCM Professor Joel Hoffman, Music07 promises a week of first-rate performances that represent a microcosm of the national new music scene.

Sunday at 8 p.m.: The first event is a showing of director Jane Campion's film "The Piano" with music by Michael Nyman. Although he composes in many genres, film scores have provided Nyman with the most visibility. This screening is in UC's Tangeman Center MainStreet Cinema at 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 10th.

Nyman's works will also appear in a concert on Friday at 8 p.m.

Monday, 8 p.m. Werner Recital Hall: The Amernet String Quartet will perform Bartok, Webern, Rochberg, and Yanov-Yanovsky on Monday at 8 p.m. The Amernet is at home with Cincinnati audiences, having held residencies at both CCM and Northern Kentucky University.

On Tuesday, Zygmunt Krauze will play a piano recital of his works and others. He composes in the "unistic" style, which is an art term borrowed from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski. You can find a clip of one piece from the program, Refrain, on his website.

Thursday, 8 p.m., Werner Recital Hall: Frederic Rzewski, a guest at MusicX since '01, has explored divergent compositional avenues. Rzewski is also an important contributor to the field of music as socio-political commentary. Most notable is his exhilarating "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!", a tour-de-force variation cycle for piano.

The concert on Thursday features two new pieces: Nanosonatas, Books I and II (2006) and The Fall of the Empire—a Music07 commission for percussionist and CCM Professor Allen Otte. The latter incorporates texts by Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Rzewski, and nursery rhymes of Mother Goose. Allen Otte's performance will no doubt be compelling.

Saturday, June 16, 8 p.m., Werner Recital Hall: The electrifying ensemble eighth blackbird is another veteran of MusicX, appearing each year since '99. They are renowned for inventive and engaging performances of many self-commissioned works that eschew the pretense of new-music stereotypes. On Saturday they will present the final concert with the winners of the Music07/eighth blackbird composition competition: Jeremy Sment's Global Life and Anthony Cheung's Enjamb/Infuse/Implode.

One of the finest student performances will surely come from Cincinnati RealTime Composers. This emerging improvisation group delights its audiences with imaginative and nuanced pieces that develop musical ideas through collaboration and spontaneity. They will perform and host jam sessions at Rohs Street Café throughout the week. For more info, see Music07.

As an educational forum, Music07 allows young composers to work with these established composers and ensembles in an intimate setting. There are four concerts for participants to present their works from Wednesday through Saturday at 6 p.m.

A full listing of concerts, times, directions, and contact information is available at www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx/index.html. Music07 concerts are free and open to the public.

Thanks to CCM student James Massol for the above info.