The music of Aaron Jay Kernis, whose first orchestral work was performed by the New York Philharmonic, will be featured in a performance by the Cornell Contemporary Chamber Players Saturday, Nov. 9, at 8:15 p.m. in Barnes Hall.
In addition, Kernis will hold a Composer's Forum Friday, Nov. 8, at 1:25 p.m. in 301 Lincoln Hall. The public is invited.
Kernis' work, which has been called "exuberant" by The New York Times, has propelled him to a place on orchestra, chamber and recital programs throughout the United States and internationally. He found fame early as a composer when in 1983, at the age of 23, the New York Philharmonic premiered his first ever orchestral work, Dream of the Morning Sky, at the 1983 Horizons Festival.
A self-taught pianist, he has studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music and Yale School of Music working with composers as diverse as John Adams, Charles Wuorinen and Jacob Druckman.
He has been a composer-in-residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Public Radio and the Minnesota Composers Forum. His honors include the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Iorne Prize, an NEA grant, a Bearns Prize and a New York Foundation for the Arts Award.
Cornell Contemporary Chamber Players will perform Aria-Lament; Air; and Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky. Aria-Lament, written in 1992, is a solo piece for violin, which will be performed by Ellen Jewett, an Ithaca College music faculty member.
Air, written in 1995 for violin and piano, has been transcribed recently for cello. The piece will be performed by Angela Lee on cello and Xak Bjerken on piano.
Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky, written in 1990, will be performed by Brian Chu '97, baritone; Jewett, violin; Rebecca Schaefer '00, piano; and Ithaca College faculty member Robert Bridge, percussion.
Works by Alfred Schnittke and Shulamit Ran are also on the program.
Kernis' Cornell appearance is made possible by a grant from Meet the Composer, whose funding is provided with support from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. The concert also is funded in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.
The Cornell Department of Music also is offering a presentation of music and dance of the Noh Theater Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. in Barnes Hall, Co-sponsored by Cornell Council for the Arts and the East Asia Program, the presentation features chants and instrumental music under the direction of Fujita Takanori.
On Nov. 10 Scott Tucker will conduct the Cornell Chamber Singers in a performance of avian music. Billed as "an afternoon of choral music with titles inspired by our feathered friends," "On a Lark" will feature the music of Hindemith, folk songs and the jazz classic A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. The performance begins at 3 p.m. in Barnes Hall
All performances are free and open to the public.