February 23, 2006
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.—Pianist Marilyn Nonken and clarinetist Michael Norsworthy will present a concert of new music in at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College. The program, titled “Beauty and Terror,” will include recent works by British, American and Australian composers. The concert and a reception to follow are free and open to the public.
Nonken has been called “a determined protector of important music” by The New York Times and “one of the greatest interpreters of new music” by American Record Guide. She is a major figure in the contemporary music scene in New York, where she is artistic director and co-founder of Ensemble 21. Her concerts have been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, IRCAM, Theatre Bouffe du Nord, the ABC (Australia) and the Guggenheim Museum. She has also appeared as a guest with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Norsworthy is the executive director of the Boston-based new music ensemble Callithumpian Consort, and is a member of Ensemble 21. He currently is artist-in-residence at Harvard University.
Both musicians have premiered works by prominent living composers such as Milton Babbitt, Elliot Carter and Brian Ferneyhough, and their appearance in Amherst represents the only local concert of such music in recent memory.
The program includes two world premieres: Michael Finnissy’s “Marilyn, Mike, Brian and the Cats” (2004) and Amherst College Valentine Professor of Music Richard Beaudoin’s “La bella confusione” (2005). Also included are Jason Eckardt’s “Tangled Loops” (1996), Finnissy’s “Kemp’s Morris” (1978) and Chris Dench’s “The Sadness of Detail “(2002). Julian Anderson’s “The Bearded Lady “(1994) rounds out the program. Anderson is the head of composition at Harvard University.
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