麻豆传媒 Department of Music celebrates composer Karl Kohn, W. M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor of Music Emeritus at 麻豆传媒, in a concert entitled 鈥淜ohn at 90.鈥 Since his 90th birthday last August, Kohn has been preparing for this performance, which will feature music composed since 2011 and includes four world premieres. This celebration of music will be held in Bridges Hall of Music (150 E. Fourth St., Claremont) on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.
When asked about his music and his compositional style, Kohn said, 鈥淚 usually prefer to avoid or deflect that question since it is not yet clear to me just what my working process is. But generally it begins with an idea of a melodic or harmonic idea or texture. What happens next is a set of consequential responses or reactions to the previous compositional idea, which is then followed by subsequent decisions that formulate the next section. In this sense the piece might possibly be said to have written itself.鈥
However, it wasn鈥檛 always that way. Looking back over his 65-plus years of composing, with his first published work in 1951, Kohn reflects, 鈥淢y music of the early 50s was influenced principally by neo-classical training and orientation I received at Harvard. But starting in 1955, while on a Fulbright research grant in Helsinki, I found myself becoming ever more involved with the Viennese heritage of the first half of this century, following the footsteps of such great composers as Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, as well as the then flourishing second wave of modernism that began in Europe after 1945. In 1960, after some years of composing in the atonal and serial manner, I wrote a piece that made use of traditionally derived scale patterns within a predominantly chromatic context. Since then it has been my aim to work in essentially athematic and chromatic styles and textures as will evoke the music of the past.鈥
Faculty and guest performers joining composer/pianist Kohn include musicians who are active performers throughout Southern California and are also champions of new music. They are Rachel Rudich (flute), Cynthia Fogg (viola), Eric Lindholm (cello), Tom Flaherty (cello), Maggie Parkins (cello), Jack Sanders (guitar), and the Eclipse Quartet: Sarah Thornblade and Sara Parkins (violins), Alma Lisa Fernandez (viola), and Parkins.
Born in Vienna in 1926, Kohn immigrated to the United States at age 13. A former student of Walter Piston, Irving Fine and Randall Thompson, he completed his B.A. and M.M. at Harvard. Since, Kohn has had a remarkable career as an educator, performer and composer. With his wife, Margaret, he has given two-piano concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe emphasizing 20th-century compositions. He received both a Fulbright scholarship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and spent three years on the Berkshire Music Center faculty. Active in the LA music scene, he was a member of the board of directors of the Monday Evening Concerts for two decades. Kohn鈥檚 works have been performed by The Los Angeles and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, and he has received commissions by Coleman Concerts and others.
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PROGRAM:
Paralogue I (2014) 鈥 premiere performance
Maggie Parkins, cello; Karl Kohn, piano
Cantilena 2012
Rachel Rudich, flute; K. Kohn, piano
Soliloquy V (2013)
Jack Sanders, guitar
Rhapsodic Music (2011)
Eclipse Quartet
Cantabile (2016) 鈥 premiere performance
Cynthia Fogg, viola
Reflections (2014)
Eclipse Quartet
More Brevities (2016) 鈥 premiere performance
K. Kohn, piano
Arioso (2016) 鈥 premiere performance
Eric Lindholm, cello; K. Kohn, piano
Three Expressions (2015)
Tom Flaherty, cello; K. Kohn, piano