Sound penetrates our outdoor spaces. Much of it we ignore, its qualities too quiet, fleeting or mundane to pay heed to amidst our thoughts and activities, or we may experience the sounds as an annoyance or disturbance. Manoeuvring our listening to be excited by outdoor sound, especially urban or city soundscapes, is not so easy. Yet amongst the noise can be found qualities of interest. In this presentation I show how I use 3D sound recording, analysis and electroacoustic composition to reveal the music under the noise, with examples from some recent outdoor sound installations.

Artist Biography: Natasha Barrett (1972) is a composer exploring new technologies and experimental approaches to sound in a broad range of contemporary music, including concert works, public space sound-art installations and multimedia interactive music. She is internationally renowned for her electroacoustic and acousmatic music, and use of 3D sound technology in composition. Her work is commissioned and performed throughout the world and has received over 20 international awards including the Nordic Council Music Prize, the Giga-Hertz Award (Germany), five first prizes and the Euphonie D'Or in the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Awards (France), two first prizes in the International Rostrum for electroacoustic music and most recently the honorary Thomas Seelig Fixed Media Award for 2023. She collaborates with performers, visual artists, architects and scientists and is also active in performance, education and research.

Photo by Carsten Aniksdal

The UGA Choral Project Spring Concert “Serenade to Music” will be presented by the Hugh Hodgson School of Music on Friday, January 13, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. The performance will be in Ramsey Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center, 230 River Road, Athens, GA 30602. This performance is free and open to the public.

Central to this performance is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ moving ode to sweet harmony, “Serenade to Music.” Originally written for 16 soloists, the piece features each singer in a brief solo. The text comes from Act V of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” Vaughan Williams merged four characters’ lines into one invitation to notice the stillness of the night and to “let the sounds of music creep in our ears.”

The UGA Choral Project started in 2019 in an effort to provide students with a near-professional, project-based choral experience during their study at UGA. Professional choral singing is growing in scope and popularity around the world, and usually operates on a project model, where singers from all over the country learn the music on their own, travel to a city, rehearse intensely for several days, perform, and then scatter again. Choral Project seeks to imitate this project model, with an intense week of rehearsals that culminates in this free concert. 

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Beethoven. The symphony is regarded by critics as Beethoven’s greatest work and is one of the most frequently performed symphonies in the world.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $3 for students with a valid UGA ID.

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR "BEETHOVEN 9TH" ON THURSDAY, APRIL 27 AT 7:30 P.M.

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR "BEETHOVEN 9TH" ON FRIDAY, APRIL 28 AT 7:30 P.M.

UGA Opera Theatre will be presenting “Postcard from Morocco” by Dominick Argento. This work is the most performed American Chamber Opera in the world.

Surreal, entertaining, and emotionally charged, “Postcard from Morocco” is richly melodic, featuring a brilliant variety of musical flavors borrowing from ragtime and popular music along with a deft parody of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman.

The cast includes familiar faces: Eleftherios Chasanidis (DMA ’23), Xiaohan Chen (DMA ’24), Andrew Ellis (DMA ‘23), Samantha Mishima Friedman (DMA ’24), Robert Harrelson (DMA ’25), and Sara Lynn Storm (MM ’23), and introduces Xandrya Edwards (MM ’23) and Brooks Todd (BM ’24)

The production will once again be directed by Daniel Ellis (Cosi fan Tutte, Faust) and conducted by returning guest artist Maestro Hilary Griffiths (Cosi Fan Tutte). Cheri Prough DeVol will be designing the set, lighting, and video projections. Kathryn Wright will serve as vocal coach.

“Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco casts a spell of unusual power for those willing to enjoy its decidedly different concepts…. a remarkable work.”

— The Washington Post

“Postcard From Morocco is rich with ideas … A strange and often beautiful evening of theater!” —The New York Times

PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE:

UGA Fine Arts Theatre

255 Baldwin St., Athens, GA 30602

THIS PERFORMANCE DOES HAVE ASSIGNED SEATING.

Tickets are $25 for adults, and $10 with a valid UGA Student ID.

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR "POSTCARD FROM MOROCCO" ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26 AT 3:00 P.M.

UGA Opera Theatre will be presenting “Postcard from Morocco” by Dominick Argento. This work is the most performed American Chamber Opera in the world.

Surreal, entertaining, and emotionally charged, “Postcard from Morocco” is richly melodic, featuring a brilliant variety of musical flavors borrowing from ragtime and popular music along with a deft parody of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman.

The cast includes familiar faces: Eleftherios Chasanidis (DMA ’23), Xiaohan Chen (DMA ’24), Andrew Ellis (DMA ‘23), Samantha Mishima Friedman (DMA ’24), Robert Harrelson (DMA ’25), and Sara Lynn Storm (MM ’23), and introduces Xandrya Edwards (MM ’23) and Brooks Todd (BM ’24)

The production will once again be directed by Daniel Ellis (Cosi fan Tutte, Faust) and conducted by returning guest artist Maestro Hilary Griffiths (Cosi Fan Tutte). Cheri Prough DeVol will be designing the set, lighting, and video projections. Kathryn Wright will serve as vocal coach.

“Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco casts a spell of unusual power for those willing to enjoy its decidedly different concepts…. a remarkable work.”

— The Washington Post

“Postcard From Morocco is rich with ideas … A strange and often beautiful evening of theater!” —The New York Times

PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE:

UGA Fine Arts Theatre

255 Baldwin St., Athens, GA 30602

THIS PERFORMANCE DOES HAVE ASSIGNED SEATING.

Tickets are $25 for adults, and $10 with a valid UGA Student ID.

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR POSTCARD FOR MOROCCO ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 AT 7:30 P.M.

About the work:

While I am a classically trained pianist, I grew up dancing ballet and various other styles for several years. By engaging in both art forms, I discovered the mutual impact that dance and piano had on one another in my life. Playing piano developed skills in rhythm, timing, and musical phrasing that I could equally apply while moving on a dance floor; dancing intertwined physical movements with musical gestures and rhythms, allowing me to internalize the music I was hearing in a very external way. This relationship between music and dance continues to impact the way I perceive and perform music, often manifesting itself through the way I physically move while playing the piano. I have always been fascinated by multidisciplinary projects that combine dance and music and had dreamed of somehow merging the two art forms together in performance. 

My collaboration with Badie Khaleghian began while we were both earning graduate degrees at the University of Georgia. Khaleghian, an Iranian-American composer, has produced a wide range of works, including solo, chamber music, orchestral, and electro-acoustic compositions. His music, which has been performed in Iran, the United States, Austria, Italy, and Canada, is heavily influenced by his Middle Eastern background and his social justice activism. Khaleghian has also cultivated a passion for collaboration, not only with other musicians, but also with artists and scientists, thus fostering an intersection of disciplines in his work. He particularly enjoys composing music for specific individuals and groups, and further, inviting them into the creative process. 

After attending one of my performances in 2017 and learning about my dance background, Khaleghian approached me about collaborating, and we brainstormed a way to intersect piano and dance within a solo piece. The result was Life Suite, which we premiered in 2019. A multidisciplinary work for solo piano, dance, and fixed media, the piece combines both live and recorded solo piano and dance, all of which I performed. A deeply personal work, it features film footage from one of my old dance recital performances and explores not only my own identity as both pianist and dancer, but also the general concept of finding one’s identity. 

A year later amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Khaleghian and I began discussing plans for a new multidisciplinary piece that would stretch beyond the scope of Life Suite in both its layering of various media and its incorporation of technology. The resulting composition, which I will further discuss in detail, is Electric Sky Blue (2022) for piano, dance, and interactive intermedia.

- Caroline Owen

Badie Khaleghian

The music of Iranian-American composer Badie Khaleghian has been called a “well-crafted, attractive modern score” (ARTS ATL). His compositions are wide-ranging in influence and inspiration, encompassing solo, chamber, orchestral, and electro-acoustic works. Khaleghian’s music is influenced by his Middle Eastern background, his social justice activism, and his passion for collaboration. His recent works explore the idea of defining self-identity through close collaboration with musicians, artists, and scientists. Khaleghian’s music has been performed in Iran, the United States, Austria, Italy, and Canada. Due to his religious background, he was banned from public higher education in Iran, but he studied, taught, and created a music major for persecuted Bahá’ís in Iran. In 2014 he came to the US as a religious refugee. In the US, he received his bachelor's and master’s degree in music composition from the University of Georgia, and currently pursuing his DMA in music composition at Rice University.

Caroline Owen

A native of Atlanta, GA, pianist Caroline Owen frequently performs as a soloist and collaborator. She has played in venues across the U.S. and in Europe, including the Wiener Saal and Solitär at the Mozarteum (Salzburg).

After winning the 2018 Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta Competition, Owen received a scholarship to study at the Mozarteum, where she worked with Dominique Merlet and Christopher Hinterhuber. She returned to Salzburg in February 2020 to compete in the live rounds of the 14th International Mozart Competition. She was also a semifinalist at the International Keyboard Odyssiad and won the 2019 Florida MTNA Young Artist Competition. Owen was invited to perform at the 2018 American Liszt Society Conference and has appeared as soloist with the Furman University Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra for the premiere of Donald Yu’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Owen has participated in Atlantic Music Festival’s Summer Piano Institute (2018), the PianoTexas Young Artists Program (2019), and the Prague Piano Festival (2019), during which she gave a performance at the Russian Consulate in Prague. She has worked with distinguished artists and teachers such as Marvin Blickenstaff, Lucille Chung, Richard Goode, Douglas Humpherys, Martin Katz, Vincent Larderet, Julian Martin, Pascal Rogé, Sandra Shen, and Dina Yoffe in masterclass settings and had additional studies with Philippe Bianconi, Joel Hastings, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Louis Nagel, Elizabeth Pridonoff, Ann Schein, and Boris Slutsky, among others.