News: June 2000

Department of Music at the University of Buffalo

June in Buffalo Celebrates 25 years

The list of resident composers who will make their pilgrimage to Buffalo this June reads like a veritable "who's who" of the contemporary music scene. With such renowned names as George Crumb, Donald Erb, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, David Felder, Lukas Foss, Bernard Rands, Charles Wuorinen, Augusta Read Thomas, Nils Vigeland, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa, and Harvey Sollberger, June in Buffalo will once again transform that city into a contemporary music "heaven."

Such a stellar line-up provides the basis for June in Buffalo's 25th Anniversary, from June 5-15, 2000. Since its founding in 1975 by Morton Feldman, June in Buffalo has been North America's hotbed of cutting edge compositional thought. Presented by the Department of Music at the University at Buffalo (UB), this summer's festival will feature works by the senior composers plus 15 invited emerging composers in performances by internationally renowned resident ensembles and soloists, as well as intensive seminars, lectures, panel discussions, master classes and open rehearsals.

Composer David Felder, June in Buffalo's Artistic Director since 1985, and the Birge-Cary Professor of Composition at UB, looks at this summer with the perspective of the past and an eye toward the future. "The celebration of a twenty-fifth anniversary in a millennial year gives a special opportunity for reflection," says Felder. "The June in Buffalo Festival was formed in an environment of artistic discovery wherein composers and performers collaborated in order to find ways toward another expression, and has sustained an optimistic vision about the possibility of 'new music' for these 25 years. Such longevity and commitment is unique in American music and merits notice and celebration. We look back to recognize many of the individual composers who have contributed so much to our program and also to our collective heritage in contemporary musical culture, while simultaneously presenting the best of their current work and their individual visions about possible futures."

A short talk by the featured composers of the evening will precede all evening concerts. Two specific concerts will highlight an individual composer; Philip Glass will be featured on Wednesday, June 7, 2000 in a concert culminating in a showing of the film Koyaanisqatsi, and Steve Reich will be featured on Tuesday, June 13. All events are open to the public, and will take place on the Amherst (North) Campus of UB. A variety of passes and individual tickets will be available for purchase; call Phil Rehard at the music department, 716-645-2921. Following the festival will be a reprisal in New York City of Morton Feldman's Crippled Symmetry by the Feldman Soloists at the Goethe Institut-German Cultural Center on June 16.