UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s experimental music ensemble Other Arts will join forces with local contemporary music ensemble Open Music and faculty from the Penn State School of Music to celebrate the centenary of visionary American composer Morton Feldman with a concert exploring his influential and distinctive musical legacy.
The concert will feature works by Feldman spanning several periods of his career, offering audiences an opportunity to experience the composer’s evolving approach to sound, notation and musical form. The program will include pieces for solo piano, duo piano, solo cello, two small chamber ensembles and a large chamber ensemble.
The concert will begin with an introductory presentation on Feldman’s life and work by Eduardo Navas, professor in Penn State’s School of Visual Arts.
Feldman (1926–87) was a central figure in the postwar American avant-garde and a member of the influential group of mid-20th-century composers known as the New York School, alongside John Cage, Earle Brown and Christian Wolff. The group had a profound influence on contemporary music in the United States and internationally.
Known for music that can be mesmerizing, quiet and subtle, Feldman challenged conventional ideas about musical structure, notation and performance. He was an early pioneer of graphic notation, developing visual approaches to musical scores that gave performers new forms of interpretive freedom. His work was also deeply connected to the visual arts. Feldman was a close friend and champion of the Abstract Expressionist painters, and his teaching and writing contributed significantly to the broader artistic conversations surrounding experimental music.
The concert program will trace some of the varied characteristics of Feldman’s music. Earlier works featuring more pointillistic and graphic approaches will be presented alongside pieces that anticipate the rich, monumental and maze-like qualities of his later, extended compositions.
The program also will include two works written in Feldman’s honor following his death in 1987: James Tenney’s “Form 4” and poet Jackson Mac Low’s “Lucas 1 to 29.” Together, these works offer further perspectives on Feldman’s influence and the artistic communities that surrounded his work.
Other Arts is directed by Professor Kevin Sims. The ensemble, which is dedicated to experimental and contemporary music, will collaborate with Open Music and Penn State School of Music faculty for the performance.
The event is free and open to the public.
