FEATURING:
- A composer portrait of music by Chicago-based composer Regina Harris Baiocchi
- A night of brand new music in conjunction and celebration with Haiku Festival Chicago
- Premieres of sixteen new works by NIU student and faculty composers
- NIU School of Music students and faculty performing alongside one another
- Works for choir, jazz combo, mixed chamber groups, solo vocalist and instrumentalists, brass quintet, percussion ensemble, marimba and string quintet
- And more
The Northern Illinois University New Music Festival returns for its ninth year November 3-4. The festival features the music and poetry of Chicago-based composer Regina Harris Baiocchi and offers exciting new music over two nights of concerts in the NIU School of Music’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall (located in the Music Building on the main campus). Poets from around the country and around the world associated with Harris Baiocchi’s Haiku Festival Chicago will be involved. The evening programs begin at 7 p.m. and tickets are available through the School of Music’s online box office.
On Wednesday, November 3, the festival kicks off with a program featuring the original music by Baiocchi and showcasing her vast and deep oeuvre. Music for percussion ensemble, string ensemble, choir, solo vocalists and instrumentalists, and small jazz groups will all share the stage together to celebrate her talent and skill as a multi-faceted composer.
On Thursday November 4, Baiocchi will offer an 11 a.m. All-School Convocation, in the concert hall. This presentation is open to the public, and will feature segments of music performed the previous evening to provide examples of her musical output as she shares stories of her career and artistic journey with the School of Music students and community.
That night at 7 p.m., the festival’s second concert will feature performances by members of the Avalon String Quartet and Reggie and Mardra Thomas, as well as brand new original music based upon original haiku by poets associated with and curated by Baiocchi and her 17th annual Haiku Festival Chicago. No less than sixteen exciting and brand new one-minute musical miniatures, either set or are inspired by Regina’s selected poems, have been composed by NIU student and faculty composers alike. NIU student composers include Kyle Anderson, Kayla Bivin, Emily Brown, Daniel Burke, Ethan Featherly, Ben Heppner, Mikaela Jackson, Elena Stavropoulos, Melissa Wang. NIU faculty composers include David Maki, Brian Penkrot, Yuko Asada, Geof Bradfield, Ben Wahlund, and Gregory Beyer.
We encourage the NIU community at large to come out and join us for one or more of our concerts this week! Any questions or comments should be directed to the New Music Ensemble Director, Dr. Gregory Beyer at 815.753.7981 or gbeyer@niu.edu.
Ninth annual NIU New Music Festival
Tickets for each night: $5 for adults, $3 students, NIU students free with pre-reserved ticket
Purchase online
NIU concert performances are broadcast through the School of Music livestream
ABOUT the NIU New Music Ensemble
Created in 2008 by its director, Dr. Gregory Beyer, the Northern Illinois University New Music Ensemble is a performance group dedicated to historically groundbreaking music of the 20th Century and the emerging musical voices of the 21st Century. Each fall, the ensemble presents a multi-concert festival featuring prominent guest composers, performers, and thematically connected compositions to expose students and the NIU community to excellence and diversity in contemporary classical music making. With its flexible instrumentation allowing it to present diverse repertoire, the NIU NME has to date presented concerts of music by Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Kate Soper, Shulamit Ran and David M. Gordon, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Erik Griswold, Anthony Pateras, Gerard Grisey, Fred Sturm, Matt Ulery, Christopher Adler, David Lang, Dawn of MIDI, and many others. At its festivals, student members of the NME have interacted directly with many of these composers and have performed alongside luminous guest artists such as Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), Yarn/Wire (NYC), Clocked Out Duo (Australia), Matt Ulery and Loom, Dane Richeson and Marco Albonetti, and the nief-norf Project.
