Slee Sinfonietta Plays Composers of the African Diaspora

    We at the Center for 21^st Century Music would like to send you warm regards on this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and announce the upcoming concert by the Slee Sinfonietta featuring music of the African Diaspora. This Wednesday evening, January 21^st at 7:30 in Lippes Concert Hall, the Sinfonietta will be featuring an exiting program of contemporary voices, trailblazers, and under-performed historic masterpieces. Included in the program is Dorothy Rudd Moore, founding member of the Society of Black Composers, whose piece Transcension was written in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1986 for the recognition of his birthday as a national holiday. 

Dorothy Rudd Moore

 

Also on the concert is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor whose career spanned the previous turn of the century. His Nonet in F Minor from 1894 is a rare dip into late Romanticism by the Sinfonietta. 

 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

 

 Coming into this century, Adolphus Hailstork’s Behold, I Build a House (2018) presents Biblical versus sung by baritone Jaman Dunn-Danger, our evening’s conductor, set against marimba played by John Dawson from the Eastman School of Music. Jonathan Bailey Holland’s The Clarity of Cold Air (2013) is a spacious work that may evoke for many the sublime beauty of the winter season. 

 

Below is a recent performance by Slee Sinfonietta.  

 

 

Ticket information is available here. As always, UB students with a valid ID are entitled to one complimentary ticket.

 2026 opens with Feldman@100, a Morton Feldman centennial celebration

 On January 12 and 13, the UB Department of Music and the Center presented two days of outstanding programming in celebration of Morton Feldman's 100th birthday. An internationally recognized figure and giant of post-war American music, Feldman served as Visiting Slee Professor at UB before being named "Edgard Varèse Professor" in the Department from 1973 until his death in 1987. Over the course of five concerts, a lecture and a panel discussion, Feldman's life and music were put into the context of works by composers he esteemed (Xenakis, Webern, Barbara Monk Feldman, and Schubert), as well as those by current UB doctoral composition students, representing the continuing tradition of musical exploration in the Department. An audience that had in some cases traveled considerable distances to attend Feldman@100 was treated to fabulous performances, including of two of the lengthy later works which are too seldom heard in concert in the USA: Piano and String Quartet, with the remarkable Amy Williams and JACK Quartet, and Piano Trio, with the amazing Horszowski Trio. Congratulations to all the performers, many of whom were UB faculty and graduate students, and special appreciation to Music Dept. Chair Prof. Eric Huebner and Birge-Cary Professor Ming Tsao for the tremendous programming work which made the event revelatory on many levels (Also congrats to Ming for the insightful essay he contributed to the program book!).

 Two of the Feldman@100 concerts are streaming on the Center's YouTube channel. The complete program information is here.

     Concert #4: Schubert, Feldman and Monk Feldman

 Concert #5: Webern and Feldman, incl. Rothko Chapel

Happy 100th, Morty!