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11th Annual NIU New Music Festival to Feature Special Guest Performers and Composers

The NIU New Music Festival celebrates its eleventh year with three consecutive evenings of music November 1, 2, and 3, 2023. The evening programs begin at 7PM and tickets are available through the NIU CVPA Digital Box Office. This milestone event will feature:

• three concerts of music for choir, mixed chamber groups, solo instrumentalists, and electroacoustic works
• guest artists John Lane and Allen Otte performing their work “The Innocents”
• performances and compositions by NIU Faculty Christopher Scanlon, Mark Snyder, Thomas Snydacker, David Maki, Silas Huff, and Ben Wahlund
• NIU student performers Ethan Cowburn, Jacob Parra, Christopher Mendez, Rhiannon Duvall Robinson, Joe Beribak, Savion Nicholls, and Tzu-Yun Chiu
• NIU student ensembles including the NIU Chamber Choir

On Wednesday, November 1st, the festival kicks off with a 7PM program in the Music Building Recital Hall featuring music by NIU faculty and student composers and performers, including Ben Wahlund’s open duration piece for percussion entitled “Justice Not Charity.”

On Thursday November 2nd, John Lane and Allen Otte will offer a talk on their piece “The Innocents” during the 11:00AM All-School Convocation in the NIU School of Music Concert Hall. This presentation will feature segments of music from their works as well as a discussion of the wrongful imprisonments that inspired the piece.

Thursday evening, the festival’s second concert held in the Concert Hall will feature the compositions and performances by NIU faculty and students, as well as an 80th birthday celebration of Morten Lauridsen by the NIU Concert Choir.

Friday November 3rd at 7PM the composition department will offer its composition seminar in Music Building Room 202 featuring both John Lane and Allen Otte.

Friday evening, the 11th Anniversary NIU New Music Festival will close with a full performance of “The Innocents” by John Lane and Allen Otte in the Recital Hall.

The NIU School of Music is proud and excited to share this week of important, contemporary works with you.

Questions or comments can be directed to Interim Festival Director Dr. Brian Penkrot by email, bpenkrot@niu.edu.

For in person tickets, please visit: https://niumusic.universitytickets.com/

As always, NIU concert performances are broadcast through our School of Music Livestream: https://www.niu.edu/music/performances/index.shtml

ABOUT the NIU New Music Ensemble and Festival Created in 2008 by its director, Dr. Gregory Beyer, the Northern Illinois University New Music Festival is a 2- to 3-day event dedicated to historically groundbreaking music of the 20th Century and the emerging musical voices of the 21st Century. Each fall, the Festival features prominent guest composers, performers, and thematically connected compositions to expose students and the NIU community to excellence and diversity in contemporary classical music making. With its ability to present diverse repertoire, the NIU NMF has to date included concerts of music by Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Augusta Read Thomas, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Kate Soper, Shulamit Ran, Elainie Lillios, Alexis C. Lamb, Judith Shatin, Jessie Montgomery, David M. Gordon, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Erik Griswold, Anthony Pateras, Gerard Grisey, Fred Sturm, Matt Ulery, Christopher Adler, David Lang, Dawn of MIDI, and many others. At its festivals, student members of the NME have interacted directly with many of these composers and have performed alongside luminous guest artists such as Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), Yarn/Wire (NYC), Clocked Out Duo (Australia), Matt Ulery and Loom, Dane Richeson and Marco Albonetti, and the nief-norf Project