8th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music - Concert #1

Last Saturday was the first concert of the 8th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music.  Ten pieces by ten composers were masterfully performed.  This concert was focused primarily on acoustic chamber music.  This concert included four pieces for piano, two pieces for guitar, two sets of songs for soprano and piano, a piece for tuba and piano and a piece for harp and double bass.  While seven of the pieces involved piano the range of styles were dramatically varied.  The styles ranged from serious and abstract works like Kyong Mee Choi's Reminiscences for piano and my 4-5 for piano to more fun and somewhat simplistic works like Micheal Vickers's Home Movies and Sylvia Rickard's Three Cabaret Songs.

These concerts are great because they bring together old friends and create new ones.  Four of the composers on Saturday's concert have had music performed before on the FCM.  One of the composers Stacey Barelos, who also performed my piece, is a friend of mine from Bowling Green State University.  It was great to see her again.  I also enjoyed meeting the "new" composers and spending a little time getting to know them.

All-in-all these concerts are a lot of work, but they are fun to put on.  The reward and the enjoyment is definitely worth the effort.