Electroacoustic Work Invigorates Classical Music in Concert on Oct. 5 at UT

The University of Tampa’s Department of Music will invigorate classical music for the contemporary audience in the Minaret New Music Concert hosted Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Fletcher Lounge of Plant Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

During the days of the Tampa Bay Hotel, it is believed that chamber music was performed from the balcony that traces the dome of the Fletcher Lounge rotunda. This tradition will be resurrected when musicians from the Minaret New Music Ensemble will perform “Phantasia,” a haunting, electroacoustic work designed to explore the unique acoustics and architecture of a signature space on the UT campus, and perhaps conjure up some of the sonic ghosts from a bygone era.

The Minaret New Music Concert will also feature a new work for laptop orchestra called “Just Fanfare,” a work created by UT music technology and composition faculty Bradford Blackburn in collaboration with students from the UT Interactive Arts Ensemble. In a laptop orchestra the musicians occupy their own sonic spaces on stage via localized amplification which allows for traditional performer interactions to occur even though the ensemble is performing with electronic virtual instruments.

“The purpose of ‘New Music’ is to break through barriers in musical aesthetics and technique, and thereby expand the normative biases of our culture, and reinvigorate the purpose of classical music for contemporary audiences,” said Blackburn.

Also on the program will be the premiere of “Song Arirang,” a new work by guest composer Zack Browning from the University of Illinois for UT voice faculty Hein Jung and the Minaret Trio (Lei Liu, violin; Lowell Adams, cello; Grigorios Zamparas, piano). Browning was commissioned by Jung to create a cultural bridge between Korean folk music and the aesthetics and techniques of contemporary Western Music.

Additional guest performers include violinist Sarah Shellman of the Florida Orchestra and clarinet/bass clarinet virtuoso Calvin Falwell, in solo works.