Carleton Arts Calendar

Guest composer Evan Chambers' compositions bear the stamp of his early exposure to the edginess and immediacy of folk song and community music-making, readily crossing boundaries and reconciling disparate musical worlds.

Chambers describes his discovery of Irish traditional music in his twenties as a conversion experience; he has been a devoted traditional fiddler ever since. In his music he seeks to capture the energy and vocabulary of folk performance and translate it into the language of contemporary classical idioms. The result is a new music that refers to its traditional roots (Albanian folk, Sufi Qawwali ritual, Irish dance tunes, Polish-American polka etc.) without rendering them quaint or blanching their power. His music consistently honors the source experience even as it presents a
synthesis.

He is currently Professor of composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Composition. He also holds a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from Bowling Green State University, where he was honored as an Accomplished Graduate in 2002. His composition teachers include William Albright, Leslie Bassett, Marilyn Shrude, and Nicholas C. K. Thorne, with studies in electronic music with George Balch Wilson.

This concert combines music inspired by Scottish and Irish Traditional fiddling, urban and rural soundscapes, poetry about the Living Earth and its more-than-human creatures, Sacred Harp Singing, Funk, Anglo-Irish balladry, and European classical music. It is an invitation to reflect, participate, and meditate on relationships between humans as well as with the natural world.

For the entire history of our species, humans have used music as a means to create belonging, to build caring community relationships, and to stitch ourselves into the living fabric of our more-than-human world. This concert reminds us about connections between musical styles and individuals of all kinds. The intention is to create a space in which we can find regeneration, empathy, and compassion for ourselves and for the living earth.  With belonging comes eventual parting, and so we also acknowledge our goodbyes and farewells.

The center of the program is a song-cycle on a collection of poems by Keith Taylor titled Marginalia for a Natural History. The poems bring into focus the small joys of our connection to place and the living beings around us, as well as the sorrow of loss due to changing climate. Also included is a work by Chambers’ teacher William Albright.

Sponsored by the Chirstopher U. Light Lectureship . The Christopher U. Light Lectureship in Music was created in 1985 (1985 for Art and 1984 for Literature) by Mr. Light, Carleton Class of 1958. Among his many interests, Mr. Light is a freelance writer and composer, a record producer and a musician with interests in computers and music.

from Music Department