KEARNEY – The accomplished and well-known Chamber Cartel music ensemble is the featured performer at the upcoming New Music Festival hosted by the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Based in Georgia, Chamber Cartel performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (March 11) at UNK’s Fine Arts Recital Hall.
The first of four festival concerts is 7:30 p.m. Friday (March 10). The opening show is followed by three Saturday performances at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and the 7:30 p.m. featured show. All concerts are free and open to the public.
The New Music Festival highlights music of 22 composers selected from a group of more than 150 who submitted their music to be performed. Eleven UNK faculty and 11 UNK students are among performers, including UNK student composers Connor Merchant Smith and Thomas Prentice, both of Grand Island.
The Chamber Cartel has been called “the darlings of Atlanta’s (New Music) scene” and “contemporary classical heavyweights.” The group says its mission is to “challenge the notion that classical music is boring, obtuse, and inaccessible” and “to propagate new and experimental music anywhere and everywhere.”
The ensemble will perform Morton Feldman’s “Crippled Symmetry” and is made up of members Matthieu Clavé, flute; Amy O’Dell, piano; and Caleb Herron, percussion.
The UNK New Music Ensemble and Bowling Green University’s Noise to Signal Ensemble also are among performers at the festival.
UNK Faculty Performers
Brian Alber – Bass Clarinet
Duane Bierman – Percussion
Noelle Bohaty – Dance
Nathan Buckner – Piano
Valerie Cisler – Piano
Ting-Lan Chen – Violin
Sharon O’Connell Campbell – Mezzo-Soprano
Anthony Donofrio – Percussion
Heidi Farrell – Oboe
Timothy Farrell – Trumpet
Jan Harriott – Clarinet
UNK Student and Guest Performers
Cayla Cuba – Clarinet, UNK student from Columbus
Drew Kasch – Saxophone, Chadron State student
Alyssa Olsen – Saxophone, UNK student from Lexington
Bobby Pace – Piano, Chadron State student
Thomas Prentice – Piano, UNK student from Grand Island
Isaac Pyatt – Percussion, guest performer from University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music
Peilin Qian – Piano, UNK student from China
Samuel Rosenau – Percussion, UNK student from Blair
Calvert Switzer – Trombone, UNK student from Gretna
Paula Van Goes – Saxophone, guest performer from Brazil
Erin Van Hal – Flute, UNK student from Pella, Iowa
Guest Composers
Clay Allen
Ruth Alon
Zachary Banzhaf – Chadron State College
Bracha Bdil
Joseph Bohigian
Christine Burke
Thomas Dempster
Amber Gudiatis
William Heinze
Ashlin Hunter
Dan Lis
Matthew Kennedy
Nathan Mays
Kevin McCarter
Connor Merchant Smith – UNK student from Grand Island
Stephen Mitton
Adam Scott Neal
Adam D. O’Dell
Ivonne Paredes
Thomas Prentice – UNK student from Grand Island
Isaac Pyatt
Robert Strobel
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Writer: Todd Gottula, Director of Communications, 308.865.8454, gottulatm@unk.edu
Source: Anthony Donofrio, UNK Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory, donofrioaj@unk.edu
