The University of Arizona’s annual composers festival will celebrate the music of 20th century French composer Claude Debussy and 21st century American composer Daniel Asia with its 11th annual Music + Festival.
The festival runs Oct. 10-16 and celebrates milestones of both composers — the 100th anniversary of Debussy’s death, and the double-dip of Asia’s 65th birthday and 30th anniversary teaching composing at the UA Fred Fox School of Music.
Music + Festival is unique among the myriad of composer festivals held around the country in that it shines the spotlight exclusively on contemporary composers, usually one from America and one from Europe or elsewhere. The event includes symposiums, workshops and concerts, and most events are free of charge.
“When we started this, we were trying something brand new and I didn’t know if we could pull it off, but everybody was so excited and said this was pretty cool,” said Asia, who has curated every festival since he founded the event in 2007.
As far as he knows, the UA event, which brings in nationally known performers to join a cast of faculty artists, is unique in the world of academia. It’s the only campus music festival that Asia knows of that partners with other departments on campus. This year, Music + Festival is collaborating with the French and Italian departments and the UA Poetry Center.
In addition to the music of Asia and Debussy, the festival is remembering poet Paul Pines, whose poetry Asia frequently set to music since the pair became friends in the 1980s. Pines died on June 27 — Asia’s 65th birthday — at the age of 77. His daughter, Charlotte Pines, will recite her father’s works during a special memorial concert Oct. 15 that also will feature Asia’s “Breath In a Ram’s Horn” and “Adrift on Blinding Light,” based on Pines’ poems.
Asia said he expects about 1,000 people will turn out for this year’s festival, the first time the event has been spread over a week. In past years, the festival has been held over a three-day weekend.
Meanwhile, the festival is about to release its first-ever recording, a CD of works by 20th century Czech composer Hans Winterberg, who was featured in last year’s festival. The CD was recorded last spring and features a host of UA faculty artists performing little know works by Winterberg that have rarely been performed in public and have never been recorded. Asia said he expects to have copies of the CD available to sell alongside copies of his dozen career CDs.
