CHICAGO, December 2003 - The music department of Columbia College Chicago will host a 70th birthday celebration and retrospective concert of the works of renowned composer Bernard Rands at 8 pm on Friday, January 16. At 6 pm, immediately preceding the concert, Rands will conduct a master class/open rehearsal.
Both the concert and the master class will take place in the music department's concert hall, 1014 S. Michigan Avenue, and are free and open to the public. Space is extremely limited and reservations are required. Call 312-344-6300.
The program of Rands' works will be performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a New York-based collective of young professional musicians in residence at Columbia College.
Cliff Colnot, resident conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW Series, will conduct the ICE as they perform a selection of works by Bernard Rands. Other guest artists joining the ICE include Katinka Kleijn on cello, Zheng Huang on oboe and Tony Arnold, soprano
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The evening's program is as follows: "Scherzi" for Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano (1974); "Memo 2 - Les Gestes" for Solo Harp (1965); "Memo 6" for Alto Saxophone (1999); "String Quartet No. 2" (1994); "Memo 7" for Female Voice (2000) and "Concertino" for Oboe and Ensemble (1996).
Through more than 100 published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. He has been honored with the Pulitzer Prize in Music for "Canti del Sole" and the 1986 Kennedy Center Freidheim Award for "Le Tambourin." His work has been described as "plangent lyricism with a "dramatic intensity" and a "musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant mastery." John Von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune describes Rands as "...a voice with something urgent to say."
Rands is the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University. He was composer in residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1989-1995 and a composer in residence at the Aspen and Tanglewood Festivals.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu