Fri 11/14 @ 7:30-9PM
French composer Pierre Boulez was one of the iconoclasts of 20th-century classical music. Inspired by the groundbreaking Olivier Messaien, whose music he championed, he spent a significant portion of his early career writing controversial atonal music.
He’s also a world-famous conductor who among other things served as Musical Advisor to the Cleveland Orchestra for two years in the early ’70s and has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra many times. (The orchestra has also played many of his works.) he was supposed to return to conduct in 2014 when he was 88 but health issues intervened
Boulez passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, so this year is the centennial of his birth, and an international conference honoring his many contributions to classical music is being held in Cleveland now, produced by the Cleveland State University School of Music, with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Paul Sacher Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
It concludes with a program of Boulez’s important modernist pieces, conducted by CSU Professor of Composition. Dr. Andrew Rindfleisch. Pieces on the program include Incises for solo piano, with soloist Shuai Wang; Dérive I for six players; and Dérive II for eleven players.
The concert takes place at CMA’s Gartner Auditorium. It’s free but you need a ticket. Get them here.
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