L.A. and D.C. Concerts Celebrate UCSD Composers

By Dirk Sutro I January 30, 2006

Chinary Ung

Composers Chinary Ung and Roger Reynolds, both longtime members of the UCSD Department of Music faculty, are being honored with concerts of their work: Ung in Los Angeles and Reynolds in Washington, D.C.

"Aura" - a piece Ung says is the most important composition of his career - will have its world premiere February 4 and 6 by Southwest Chamber Music, as part of a multiple-concert series devoted to Ung's music.

The series, Southwest's ongoing Composer Portrait Series, will feature a number of other Ung works, along with music by some of his favorite composers, including John Cage, William Craft, Debussy, Lou Harrison, Joan Huang, Messiaen and Ravel. Performances will be held at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and the Colburn School of Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles.

Ung, who won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for "Inner Voices" in 1989, has been called "the Cambodian Bartok" for his twin loves of Asian folk and modern music. "Aura" is the latest composition to explore both these interests.

For details on the concert series: http://swmusic.org/

Roger Reynolds

Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Reynolds, meanwhile, will receive recognition for 40 years as an innovative composer who combines technology with traditional instrumentation. On February 2, the Library of Congress is presenting a retrospective of his recent work, spotlighting four pieces from the past decade.

The program includes "The Red Act Arias Suite" (with multi-channel computer sound), "The Image Machine" (real-time interactive computer music), and "Process and Passion" (violin and cello with computer processed sound and real-time computer spatialization).

Reynolds takes his inspiration from eclectic sources. "The Red Act Arias Suite," for instance, was inspired by the works of Aeschylus and Euripides, while Reynolds has said that "Kokoro" is an exploration of the mind's "extreme and alternative worlds."

The retrospective concert is also a belated celebration of the Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress - interviews, music samples, scores, photos and diagrams brought together on the Library's web site and unveiled last summer: http://loc.gov/rogerreynolds.