2024 Birmingham New Music Festival: TO BE A PEOPLE

Name: 2024 Birmingham New Music Festival: TO BE A PEOPLE
Start: 2024-05-05T16:00:00-05:00
Location: First United Methodist Church - Birmingham

Schedule

Sun May 05 2024 at 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

First United Methodist Church - Birmingham | Birmingham, AL

TO BE A PEOPLE
Alabama composer Ed Robertson was a charter member of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance whose guiding influence and artistry helped shape the organization. The opening concert at Birmingham First United Methodist Church (518 19th St N ) on Sunday 5/5, 4PM is dedicated to his memory and his music. ASO concertmaster Daniel Szasz and pianist Eun-Hee Park perform Saints Fantasy, a set of variations on When the Saints Go Marching In for violin and piano. Adam Bowles presents Changing Landscapes for solo piano, and Craig Hultgren plays Night Scenes for scordatura cello (a winning entry in the Hultgren Cello Works Biennial competition). Baritone Patrick Evans and pianist Laurie Middaugh perform Two Songs on Poems of Conrad Aiken, then the concert closes with a singing of To Be A People, a hymn with words and music by Robertson, written for University Baptist Church in Montevallo.
About the Festival:
The Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) announces the 10th Anniversary BIRMINGHAM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL, seven concerts between May 5-13, 2024. This year’s festival presents a wide range of music by Alabama composers including solo piano, four chamber music ensembles, choral music, live electronics, improvised music, and new takes on Appalachian folk music. The festival will take place at Birmingham First United Methodist Church, East Village Arts, Samford University's Brock Recital Hall, and UAB's Hulsey Recital Hall. All concerts are free. The festival was implemented in 2014 to further BAMA's mission of promoting music by Alabama composers and presenting concerts of recently created art music to communities in Birmingham. The 2024 festival honors two composers who died in 2023, Joe L. Alexander and Ed Robertson. Our guest composer is New York City-based Robert Voisey, who founded the 60X60 and Fifteen Minutes of Fame projects.