INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University’s tenth annual festival designed to celebrate the life and works of the German composer Paul Hindemith will feature the West Point Band, the U.S. Army’s oldest active band, in performances on Thursday, March 1 in Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus. Admission is free.
The festival, titled "Hindemithon," will include performances exploring Hindemith’s musical ideas and contributions to American culture. The tenth anniversary celebration will feature the West Point Band, faculty, students, alumni, guests, and Frank Pavese, a William Paterson adjunct professor of classical studies and performance and pianist. A special Midday Artist Series performance is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Master classes for William Paterson students will be offered by the artists from 4 to 6 p.m. An evening gala concert at 7:30 p.m. will include Hindemith’s “Septet” and “Kleine Kammermusik.”
The West Point Band, the U.S. Army’s oldest active band and the oldest unit at the United States Military Academy, traces its roots to the Revolutionary War. The organization is responsible for satisfying the Academy’s official musical requirements including military and patriotic ceremonies, public concerts, sporting events and radio and television broadcasts. The band has performed at such historical events as the dedication of the Erie Canal, at the Chicago and New York World’s Fairs, and for the funerals of Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hindemith, who was born in 1895, was a leading exponent of the neoclassic movement. Considered a musical radical as a young man, from the mid-1920s onward he was acknowledged both as one of the key modernist composers of the 20th century and as a teacher and theorist whose influence on younger musicians was unmatched. In his middle years, he rejected atonalism, the form of musical modernism associated with Arnold Schoenberg, and later criticized non-tonal music.
For additional information, contact Frank Pavese, artistic director of the event, at 973-720-4576.
02/21/12
