March 2, 2012
THE STATE OF CHORAL MUSIC IN AN AMERICAN IDOL AGE; A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH ART LOCAL COMPOSERS.
Join Octarium Artistic Director and composers Rich Campbell, Ian Coleman, Robert Pherigo, Forrest Pierce and Ingrid Stolzel for a lively discussion. Octarium will be in residence performing parts of the Art Local program. You don't want to miss this very special look inside the Art Local process.
 
Central Branch
14 West 10th St.
Kansas City, MO  64105
6:30 p.m.
http://www.kclibrary.org/event/state-choral-music-american-idol-age
 
March 3, 2012
ART LOCAL PERFORMANCE
Community Christian Church
4601 Main St
Kansas City, MO 64112
7:30 p.m.

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/217840

WhAt Is “Art Local?”
Art Local became a glimmer of an idea while I was working on Modern Masters, our 2009 recording project designed to highlight living composers. I was having wonderful email conversations and building distant working relationships with composers like Morten Lauridsen, Daniel gawthrop and Libby Larsen, but they never had the opportunity to hear us in person. To work with us in person. To shape the music as it came out of our mouths. When we released the recording, composer Stephen Hatfield came to Kansas City for perfor- mance weekend. We presented some great programming surrounding the concert with him, but we also got to sing his piece for him. and as he worked with us, I found myself wishing we had worked with him before we recorded. When an ensemble bringing the music to life collaborates directly with the composer who conceived it, there’s a special kind of magic -- a magic very few ensembles, composers and audiences get to experience on a regular basis.
So I set about making that magic happen for Kansas City. and with creative grass-roots funding and support from the community.
Art Local features nine world premieres. Six of those nine were written specifically for Octarium, four commissions by established composers and two compositions by student composers who worked with the ensemble through the composition process. Three pieces are winners of competitions Octarium sponsored; our annual Octarium Composition Competition and two undergraduate student Composition Competitions at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music. We are thrilled to include as well, the first choral pieces ever written by renowned composer Kirke Mechem. a Kansas native, Mechem is being honored in May by the University of Kansas with an hon- orary Doctor of arts for his achievements in choral music; we honor him tonight by singing the three pieces that began his career in choral music.
This is not so much a concert as it is the culmination of a process; a project that brought together local talent from Warrensberg to Lawrence. a project designed to kickstart the careers of young composers and highlight the compositions of established artists. a project designed to add quality to the standing choral repertoire. a project designed to help us ap- preciate art that originates in our own backyard.
This is Art Local.
Krista Lang Blackwood
Artistic Director, Octarium