It’s a concert that comes full circle.
Professor Joseph Klein regularly teaches a piece titled Music for 18 Musicians in his courses at the University of North Texas College of Music.
The piece was written by Steve Reich, who won a Pulitzer Prize for music years after he traveled to Ghana, West Africa, where he studied with drummer Gideon Foli Alorwoyie. Alorwoyie, an internationally renowned performer of traditional West African music and dance, is a music professor at UNT and director of UNT’s African Percussion Ensemble.
Klein said the piece — a minimalist work — is significant for the genre.
“It’s very hypnotic,” Klein, who is the faculty coordinator for the performance, said in a news release. “The gradual transformations result in a unique experience for people that have never gone to a performance of a minimalist piece.”
Reich’s work features a series of repetitive, melodic patterns set to a pulse. The pulse requires the listener to focus on the gradual changes. The piece unfolds in 11 sections, and what sounds simple is a bit of an endurance run for the musicians, who drive the music (which probably inspired a generation or two of knockoffs that underscore tech commercials for wireless devices) with precise tempos and tones.
The opening section sounds positively synth-generated. And while there’s no overt reference to Reich’s extensive composition for drums, the listener can appreciate the composer’s ear for rhythm.
An ensemble of student musicians will perform the piece in an 8 p.m. concert Monday in Voertman Hall inside the UNT Music Building, 415 Ave. C.
The Reich ensemble includes UNT students Shelby Blezinger, Jaime Esposito, Nick Guiliano, Jacob Garcia, Tim Feerst, Adam Davis, Jonathan Carr and Corey Robinson (percussion); Connor O’Meara and Nathan Beatty (clarinet and bass clarinet); David Falterman, Michael Fowler, Ryan Ayers and Michelle Brite (piano); Leah Greenfield (violin); Kourtney Newton (cello); and Isabel Crespo, Ashlie Dance, Amanda Ekery, Anna Jalkeus and Marion Powers (vocalists).
The concert is free. Free parking for the evening is available in Lot 26, southwest of the Music Building. The entrance to the lot is off Highland Street.
— Staff report
