World music, unique period instruments launch this fall's concert series

Although the renovated Lincoln Hall won't open its doors until fall 2000, Cornell's Department of Music will continue to offer a diverse and high-quality concert experience during the fall 1999 season, with more than 40 free concerts, says Mark Scatterday, associate professor and chair of the department.

Scatterday describes this year's lineup as "an exciting array of world-class singers, pianists, instrumentalists, composers, conductors, and lecturers who will come together to present music from all over the world."

• The season opens next Friday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall with "Global Jazz Songs" by guest composer and guitarist Tom Ross, accompanied by Michael Migliozzi on percussion. The program presents 11 original works that straddle jazz, traditional folk and world music, encompassing sounds of India, Indonesia, Africa and the United States. Ross will also speak at a composer's forum at 1:25 p.m. that day in 400 White Hall.

  Ross studied at Wesleyan University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. and worked with composer John Cage. He is a protégé of jazz guitar great Johnny Smith, has studied music in India, China and Niger and has co-written songs with David Crosby, recording Horse of Stone under his auspices. His latest project is the album The Rain Takes Off Her Clothes, global jazz songs that use poems by Emily Dickinson, Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Neruda.

• A unique recital presents two distinct schools of piano building -- English and Viennese -- when Tom Beghin performs "Works by Ignaz Moscheles" Saturday, Sept. 4, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall, using both a copy of an 1824 Conrad Graf piano and an original, circa 1825 Broadwood similar to one owned by Beethoven. Beghin earned his doctorate in 18th-century performance practice at Cornell under Malcolm Bilson and is now an assistant professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, where he teaches historical keyboards and performance practice. As a soloist Beghin has performed with period instrument orchestras such as the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, the Apollo Ensemble, Collegium Instrumentale Brugense and Los Angeles Baroque, and he has recorded for the Eufoda, Bridge and Claves labels. Moscheles, the pianist-composer whose works Beghin will perform at Cornell, was esteemed by younger colleagues Chopin, Schumann and Liszt.
• Other world music offerings this fall include South Indian music and dance Oct. 6 and 23 and Nov. 15; Mbira masters of Zimbabwe Oct. 15; Satsumabiwa, or warrior tales with biwa accompaniment, Nov. 17; and the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble Dec. 5.

Other highlights of the season:

• Malcolm Bilson and former student David Breitman will perform together on "dueling pianos," Oct. 5. And another former Bilson student, Bart VanOort, will give a solo performance, Nov. 2.
• David Borden and the Mother Mallard Ensemble will celebrate their 30th year of performing contemporary synthesizer music Oct. 3 at the Center for Theatre Arts, as part of this year's Proscenium Concert Series.
• Works by Cornell faculty composers include an Ensemble X concert of Karel Husa's Sonata a tre Sept. 16; a Clinton Quartet performance of Robert Palmer's Fourth String Quartet Sept. 17; new work by Roberto Sierra, performed by clarinetist William Helmers, Sept. 23; and a Cornell Symphony Orchestra performance of Steven Stucky's Double Flute Concerto, Oct. 16.

For information and tickets, call 255-5144 or visit the music department's web site: www.arts.cornell.edu/music/concerts.html.