During the spring of 2015, Drs. Kristin Ditlow and Karola Obermüller began planning the first installments of a contemporary music exchange. This exchange would bring American contemporary music to Germany, and likewise sponsor performances of contemporary German music in New Mexico.
The project quickly expanded to include Professors Eric Lau and Scott Ney, with performances in Nürnberg and Darmstadt and master classes in Würzburg.
darabq1summer2015 from Kristin Ditlow on Vimeo.
The program included compositions by Volker Blumenthaler, professor for composition and theory at Nuremberg Hochschule für Musik, Cord Meijering, director of Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt; UNM Music Faculty Karola Obermüller, Jose-Luis Hurtado, Peter Gilbert, and Richard Hermann; and noted composers Olivier Messiaen, Lori Laitman, Milton Babbitt, and James Beale.
The Nürnberg performance was hosted by Monika Teepe and Volker Blumenthaler while the Würzburg Hochschule für Musik hosted master classes for percussion and saxophone. The Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt, was the host for the Darmstadt solo “klavierabend.”
Future performances and exchanges are being planned for the coming season.
Percussion Guest Artist Series presents Dr. Kenneth Broadway and Christopher Wilson
Dr. Kenneth Broadway has a passion for training the next generation of teachers, performers, and leaders in the field of music. .Christopher Wilson is a Doctoral candidate in Percussion Performance at the University of Northern Colorado.
Percussion Guest Artist Series presents Dr. Michael Vercelli
Dr. Michael B. Vercelli is the director of the World Music Performance Center at West Virginia University. Michael holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance with a minor in Ethnomusicology from the University of Arizona.
Musicology Colloquium Series presents Dr. Peter J. García
This presentation examines New Mexico folk music collected by John Donald Robb and studied by Mexican musicologist Vicente T. Mendoza. These collections include folk melodies from the maternal side of García’s family.