CMPCP/IMR Performance Research Seminars are sponsored by the AHRC Research
Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice and the Institute of
Musical Research. For further information see
http://www.cmpcp.ac.uk/imr2014.html.
Professor Christian Wolff: American composer of experimental music
Christian Wolff
12 May 2014
17.00 - 18.30
Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London
WC1
Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France, but has lived mostly in
the U.S. since 1941. Academically trained at Harvard as a classicist, Wolff
has taught classics at Harvard and from 1971 to 1999 was professor of
Classics and Music at Dartmouth College. He studied piano with Grete Sultan
and, briefly, composition with John Cage. Though mostly self-taught as a
composer, associations with John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, Earle
Brown, Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew have been important for him. A
particular feature of his music has been to allow performers various degrees
of freedom and interaction at the actual time of performance. A number of
pieces have been used by Merce Cunningham and the Cunningham Dance Company,
starting in 1953. Wolff has also been active as a performer and as an
improviser - with, among others, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacey, Keith Rowe,
William Winant, Kui Dong, Larry Polansky and the group AMM. His writings on
music, up to 1998, are collected in the book Cues: writings and
conversations, published by MusikTexte, Cologne. He has received awards and
grants from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters,
DAAD Berlin, the Asian Cultural Council, the Fromm Foundation, the
Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts and the Mellon Foundation. He
is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and has received an
honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts.
Professor Wolff's lecture will be followed by a short concert by Apartment
House, a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music
(winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society's chamber ensemble prize 2012).
The lecture will be followed by a short concert
Apartment House
Bridget Carey (viola), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Philip Thomas (piano)
Christian Wolff
Exercises 29 & 30 3 instruments (UK premiere)
Cello Suite Variation cello
Duo 10 (Summer Days) viola, cello (UK premiere)
In Between Pieces viola, cello, piano
Pianist: Pieces (2001) piano
Emma viola, cello, piano (UK premiere)
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