The Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition is a position awarded annually to a major figure in music composition today. The Visiting Professors come to the Ithaca College campus during the course of the academic year to lecture on their music and issues relevant to contemporary composition. In addition, during their time on campus, they hold private lessons with the School of Music's composition majors. Over the year of their professorship, their music is performed and examined by Ithaca College School of Music faculty and students.
The Enduring Masters program will continue to be administered as a partnership between the School of Music and the Gerontology Institute. The Program was originally supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Sebastian Currier will visit in October with a lecture at 8:15 p.m. on Sunday, October 11 in the Iger Lecture Hall and a concert of his music at 8:15 p.m. on Monday, October 12 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall.
The music of Sebastian Currier, heralded as "music with a distinctive voice" by the New York Times and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new" by the Washington Post, has been performed at major venues worldwide by acclaimed artists and orchestras.
A full evening of his chamber music was presented by the Berlin Philharmonic last fall, which included two premieres. This fall he returned to Berlin again for the premiere of Broken Minuets, performed by harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet and the Oriol Ensemble at the Philharmonie.
His music has been enthusiastically embraced by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he wrote Aftersong, which she performed extensively in the US and Europe, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Symphony Hall in Boston, the Barbican in London, and the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg. A critic from the London Times said, "if all his pieces are as emotionally charged and ingenious in their use of rethought tonality as this, give me more." He is currently writing her a concerto.
Visit the library's Karel Husa Visiting Professor page.
PAST VISITING PROFESSORS:
2008 - 2009 William Bolcom, Sydney Hodkinson
2007 - 2008 Karel Husa, Joan Tower, George Tsontakis
2006 - 2007 Jennifer Higdon
2005 - 2006 Michael Colgrass
2004 - 2005 Stephen Hartke
2003 - 2004 Robert Beaser
2002 - 2003 Chen Yi
2001 - 2002 Karel Husa
2000 - 2001 Michael Daugherty
1999 - 2000 John Harbison
1998 - 1999 Libby Larsen
1997 - 1998 Tania León
1996 - 1997 Christopher Rouse
1995 - 1996 George Crumb
1994 - 1995 Samuel Adler
1993 - 1994 Jacob Druckman
1992 - 1993 Shulamit Ran
1991 - 1992 Karel Husa
1990 - 1991 William Bolcom
1989 - 1990 Joan Tower
1988 - 1989 John Corigliano
1987 - 1988 Joseph Schwantner
