CLU to Host Prizewinning Composer

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang will be the guest of honor at the 10th Annual New Music Concert on Sunday, Feb. 19, at California Lutheran University.

Lang will participate in a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in Samuelson Chapel. CLU faculty, students and guest performers will then present Lang’s choral and instrumental music. For the first time, the concert will also feature Areté Vocal Ensemble, the professional ensemble of vocal artists in residence at the university.

The composer received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for music for “the little match girl passion,” which was commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Pulitzer juror and Washington Post columnist Tim Page said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so moved by a new, and largely unheralded, composition.”

The New York Philharmonic, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet and a range of other groups have performed his music in venues including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Barbican Centre. His compositions have been featured in theater productions and as accompaniment to the choreography of Twyla Tharp, The Netherlands Dance Theater and the Paris Opera Ballet.

Lang is also the co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.

The concert will include “lend/lease,” “the anvil chorus” and “memory pieces.” The CLU Choir will sing “again,” Areté will perform “oh graveyard,” and the women of Areté will perform “I lie,” “i live in pain” and “this condition.” Wyant Morton will conduct.

Donations given in memory of Suzanne Freeman, a longtime CLU staff member who died in August, helped fund the concert. Donations will be accepted at the door.