ZEITGEIST: GEORGE CRUMB AT 90 – NIGHT 3

The Daedalus Quartet performs Crumb’s Vietnam War-haunted Black Angels for amplified string quartet, “a work of frightening intensity, where Jimi Hendrix and Pierrot Lunaire shake hands with the devil.” A selection of Crumb’s early music rounds out the picture of this essential American artist’s lengthy career.

PROGRAM

Sonata for Solo Violoncello (1955)
Thomas Kraines

Four Nocturnes (1964)
Min-Young Kim, violin
Charles Abramovic, piano

Three Early Songs (1947)
Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano
James Primosch, piano

A Little Suite For Christmas, 1979, A. D. (1980)
James Primosch, piano

Black Angels (1970)
Daedalus String Quartet
Min-Young Kim and Matilda Kaul, violins
Jessica Thompson, viola, Thomas Kraines, cello

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Bowerbird, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music, and the Annenberg Center are pleased to present Zeitgeist: George Crumb at 90, a three concert festival celebrating more than seventy years of music by Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning composer George Crumb. Crumb’s music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles, ranging from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-Western musics. Many of Crumb’s works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than thirty years of service. Honored by numerous institutions with honorary Doctorates, and the recipient of dozens of awards and prizes, Crumb makes his home just outside of Philadelphia, in the same house where he and his wife of more than sixty years raised their three children.

This event is part of Zeitgeist: George Crumb at 90

Support for this project has been provided by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.