USC Polish Music Center to present concert with David Lynch Saturday

Polish Music Center at USC presents a concert featuring "Glissando Generation" avant-garde Polish musicians, with guest artist DAVID LYNCH

WHEN: Saturday, March 26, 4 p.m.

WHERE: Newman Recital Hall, University of Southern California. For a map of campus, click here.

WHAT: The Polish Music Center at USC presents a concert featuring members of an avant-garde music movement that has become known as the “Glissando Generation” (named after a Polish music periodical covering avant-garde music and art). These young composers, who are gaining renown on the international scene with numerous commissions and performances of their works, will be present to discuss their music and their compositional process.

The concert will be capped with a special performance by filmmaker David Lynch, a longtime enthusiast of Polish avant-garde music, appearing in a keyboards-grand piano duet of free improvisations with Marek Żebrowski, program director and curator of the Polish Music Center at USC.

WHO: Wojtek Blecharz has been recognized with a number of international prizes for his compositions as well as for performances as an oboist. He will be represented with a 2008 composition, Com/m/a for flute and clarinet, performed by flutist Amy Tatum and clarinetist Eric Jacobs.

Mikołaj G[recki's music has been performed worldwide. Sonata for Two Pianos, written in 2005, will be given its World Premiere at the Polish Music Center concert by piano duo Aurelien Eulert and Sara Sumitami.

Jarosław Kapuściński’s primary interest is the creation and performance of works in which musical instruments are used to control multimedia content and the composer will perform his 2009 composition Juicy for piano and video.

Robert Pierzak is a composer and conductor who writes vocal, electronic, and instrumental music. Pierzak’s composition, I’m Underwater for piano solo (2008) will be performed at the Polish Music Center concert by pianist Yevgeniy Milyavskiy.

Ewa Trębacz is a composer and media artist. Her 2005 work, Minotaur for horn and surround sound, will be performed by Josiah Boothby, who collaborated with Trębacz on this composition. Krzysztof Wołek's 2009 Arguro for flutes and live electronics will be performed by flutist Michael Matsuno.

David Lynch, a visionary filmmaker, is also a keen musician and enthusiast of Polish avant-garde music. For several years he has collaborated with pianist Marek Żebrowski on exploring musical inspiration in free-form improvisations, and their album, “Polish Night Music,” featuring several extended improvisations, was released in 2008. Their performance at the March 26 Polish Music Center concert will include a brief introduction by Lynch with music — created on the spot — to follow.

About the Polish Music Center
Affiliated with the USC Thornton School of Music, the Polish Music Center houses the largest collection of Polish music in the United States and is the only center at an American university devoted solely to Polish music. For more information, visit http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/