George Crumb Residency

February 27 - March 1, 2007

An opportunity of a lifetime filled with lasting memories!!! To date, this was by far our most ambitious project. We were more than priviledged to have visit Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, George Crumb. It is difficult to put into words what a wonderful human being Dr. Crumb is and how deeply he touched and inspired us while he was here. We can't thank Dr. Crumb enough for his amazing energy and for sharing his wonderful passion for music. We had the best time!!!

While here, Dr. Crumb listened and later commented on a concert of our music. He was also present for a panel discussion, held open rehearsals of his music, and attended two performances of his music. Accompanying him was his long-time friend, David Starobin and the two of them performed Crumb's Mundus Canis for guitar and percussion. It was special to see the two of them on stage together, to say the least.We also had pianist, Dr. Richard Reber here to perform Books I and II of Crumb's Makrokosmos. Also on the same concert, our faculty and students performed Crumb's Christmas Suite in a tag-team fashion. It was unusual but worked well and the performers all played great!

The capstone event was a concert of Crumb's chamber music and included a performance of the following pieces (click here for the program):

Black Angels performed by guest string quartet, The Rockefeller Quartet
Easter Dawning for carillon performed by the ASU Ringers with Dr. Ellis Julien directing
Three Early Songs performed by Matthew Carey, baritone and Lauren Schack Clark, piano
Sonata for Solo Violoncello performed by Jonathan Kirkscey, violoncello
Mundus Canis (A Dog’s World) (1998) performed by George Crumb, percussion and David Starobin, guitar
An Idyll for the Misbegotten (Images III) performed by Joe Bonner, flute, Craig Collison, Curtis Farley, Janet Rooney, percussion

Here is a complete itinerary of the residency.