New music Central: Cepheid III
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Event description
Join us for the world premiere of Cepheid III for solo percussion, written by Pōneke based composer Glen Downie for UC’s Associate Professor Justin DeHart. Cepheid III is the third in a series inspired by the shifting luminosity of cepheid variable stars. In addition, Cepheid III draws upon music of the renaissance and the ‘music of the spheres’ , as well as the celestial percussion music of the 20th century such as Xenakis’ Pleiades.
Exploring another facet of the composer's output, the concert will also feature Cepheid III as a sort of concerto, for solo percussion and improvising ensemble, and two previous works which further explore ideas of renaissance counterpoint and improvisation in a contemporary setting.
Cepheid I (for Organ) https://vimeo.com/107437182https://www.glendowniecomposer.com/
Bio:
Glen Downie is a Wellington based composer who holds a Master of Musical Arts from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, where he studied under Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. Past teachers have included John Psathas, Kenneth Young and Gao Ping. From October 2023 he will be pursuing a PhD at the University of Cambridge.
He has been the NZSO National Youth Orchestra Composer in Residence (2019), and had works performed and workshopped by the Brussels Philharmonic, the Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington and the NZSO. He has received commissions from Chamber Music New Zealand and was the 2022 recipient of the SOUNZ Commission for Orchestra and Sistema Youth Orchestra.
Also an active free improviser on saxophone, he has played with Lukas Ligeti, Jeff Henderson, Pyramid Lake (an improvised quartet with Rob Thorne, Simon Eastwood and Dexter Stanley-Tauvao) and presented an original set for the Arthur Street Loft Orchestra series in Wellington.
Photo Credit: Ferry star, 2017, Amos Mann