Four KU professors, Dr. Jeremy Justeson, Dr. Maria Asteriadou, Dr. Susanna Loewy and Dr. Daniel Immel performed a compilation of works by the Deadbeat Composers Collective in the Weill Recital Hall on Feb. 9.
The music, written by Craige Biondi, Alphonze Izzo and Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn for the Case Ensemble showcased the skills of these four professors for not only the audience at Weill Hall, but also for students and fellow faculty alike here at Kutztown.
Dr. Loewy explained that they not only worked together, but share an art. The performance was shaped by the interaction between these coworkers as well as their preparation in front of students.
Erin Phillips, a freshman Music Education major, attended the performance.
“It was modern, unique… new music. Extensive dynamics, note clashing, tension – it was music that I’ve never heard anything like before,” Phillips said. “It was like another language of music.”
Overall, the student reception of the Deadbeats Composers Collective was extremely positive and exemplified just how open they are to such new music.
This was not only an opportunity to expose the students to contemporary music, but also a chance to display the product of dedication and hard work their professors have invested into this performance. The fact that these professors continue to work on separate projects takes the learning process to a new level.
“If they just teach, you don’t really know how they sound or what they do,” Phillips said.
It’s one thing to know that these professors rehearse and perform outside of class, but it is another to see so in person.
“Watching them perform gives me the drive to reach their level,” Phillips said.
Currently, Dr. Justeson and Dr. Loewy have a commission of flute and saxophone work written by Gregory Wanamaker. Along with their own projects, the professors strive to expose their students to outside talents as well.
“As the Wind Ensemble director I always try to bring in a composer or two every year to work with that larger group of students on their work,” Justeson said. “Sometimes it’s a composer from New York or Philadelphia that we are playing a piece by other times they are from all over.”
Next year, Robert Patterson, a New York City based composer, will be working with the ensemble on their commission of his new work in preparation for its world premier and the Wind Ensemble’s debut in the newly renovated Schaeffer Auditorium.
This Spring semester will be seeing a number of recitals and performances by both national and international talents including the Swedish percussion group, Kroumata, numerous student and faculty recitals and a wind Ensemble performance at the Kennedy Center for the 2013 Washington DC International Music festival. With such a successful beginning to the semester, only the best lies ahead.
For over 100 years, Carnegie hall has been a venue for the finest talents, minds and creations in America. Carnegie Hall has welcomed the people such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, the Beatles, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Andy Kauffman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By Margariete Malenda