Thursday, February 2, 2012

REDCAT to honor John Cage with birthday concerts Feb. 15 and 16

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of John Cage's birth, REDCAT hosts two nights of rarely played music—including major works by Cage, and works by composers responding to Cage's groundbreaking music. John Cage Centenary Festival will be held at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater Wednesday, February 15 at 7:00 pm and Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 8:30 pm.



Program for February 15



Opening the festival, the New Century Players, the professional new music ensemble of the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, joins forces with the CalArts Orchestra for a program of large-scale pieces by the American visionary. Note that all works are by John Cage and this program begins at 7pm to allow for the inclusion of an expansive line-up of works.



in program order

Ryoanji (1984) solo; Rachel Rudich, shakuhachi

Dance/4 Orchestras (1982)

Etcetera (1973)

Renga (1976)

Fourteen (1990)

Ryoanji (1984) for ensemble



Program for February 16



The New Century Players center the festival's second evening on the Cage's seminal graphic score Fontana Mix—a telling example of the composer's fascination with the ideas of indeterminacy, chance, and silence. In addition to the original Fontana Mix tape music composition itself, the program consists of solo and small ensemble works by Cage, and works composed referencing the Fontana Mix score or using the Fontana Mix materials by Cage himself, and by composers responding to Cage's benchmark.



in program order

Playing continuously in the lobby: Karlheinz Essl: FontanaMixer (2004–7)

John Cage: Fontana Mix (1958)

John Cage: Aria (1958), with WBAI (1960)

Cornelius Cardew: Piece for Guitar (for Stella) (1964); Stuart Fox, solo guitar

John Cage: Water Walk (1959); Kristen Erickson, performer

Ulrich Krieger: Unterwelten II & III, woodwind sextet

—Intermission—

Max Neuhaus: Fontana Mix-Feed (1965)

John Cage: Theater Piece (1960) with WBAI (1960)

James Tenney: (Fontana) Mix for Six (Strings) (2001), string sextet



These concerts are part of a yearlong festival presented by The Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). To kick off the festival, CalArts presents an intensive workshop that will focus on interpreting, preparing, and performing Cage's legendary musical/theatrical composition Song Books (solos for voice, 3–92), which will culminate in a large-scale performance on campus this Sunday, February 5, 2012. This performance aims to include at least one rendition of all 90 solos—a very rare occurrence in the work's history.



John Cage Centenary Festival

Wednesday, February 15 at 7:00 pm; and

Thursday, February 16 at 8:30 pm

Tickets: $20 ($16 students)



Seating is general admission and tickets are available for purchase in person at REDCAT Box Office, by phone at 213-237-2800, or online at www.redcat.org.



REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012



REDCAT is located at the corner of W. 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles.

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