Ensemble X closes its season with Stucky, Stravinsky and Kirchner

Ensemble X closes its 1998-99 season with "Birthdays all around" on Friday, April 16, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall. As the final concert of the series, Ensemble X presents a new work by artistic director Steven Stucky as well as a revival of a favorite 20th-century classic, Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat ("The Soldier's Tale") and celebrates the 80th birthday of guest composer Leon Kirchner with his Piano Trio No. II. In addition to the preconcert discussion in the auditorium from 7:15-7:45 p.m., Kirchner will present the Composer's Forum on Friday at 1:25 p.m. in 301 Lincoln Hall.

Stucky's Ad Parnassum, commissioned by Boston Musica Viva for its 30th anniversary, premiered in Cambridge, Mass., in October 1998. Scored for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello, Ad Parnassum will be conducted by the composer, who is a professor of composition at Cornell.

The musical world has been celebrating Leon Kirchner's 80th birthday all season. Born in Brooklyn in 1919 and raised in Los Angeles, he was a student of Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA and of Roger Sessions and Ernst Bloch at Berkeley. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Kirchner has received virtually every honor that is available to a composer, including a Pulitzer Prize, two New York Music Critics' Circle Awards and a Naumberg Award. He has been an influential teacher at the University of Southern California, Mills College and Harvard for many years. His students have included John Adams, Yo-Yo Ma and other luminaries of today's music.

Composed in 1918 by Igor Stravinsky, "The Soldier's Tale" is scored for a small instrumental combo and a company of dancers and actors. Choreographed by Rachel Lampert, artistic director of the Kitchen Theater, with narration by Richard Driscoll, actor and director of the Community Arts Partnership, L'Histoire will be conducted by Mark Davis Scatterday and danced by Jonathan Tilley, Barbara Geary and Marcia Thompson.