Debussy at Eastman

A fascinating symposium/festival celebrating the 150th birthday of the great composer, one of my two candidates for the deepest hidden influence on 20th c. concert music. The Festival Gala will include two acts of Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien: irresistible! I am sure various heads will be exploding at the thought of a crossover adaptation of Pelleas to go with a comic book version of the opera:

The Eastman School of Music presents

THE PRISMATIC DEBUSSY

Oct 1-27, 2012

Festival highlights: 

Sat, Oct 13 at 8pm

Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre

Festival Gala Concert

EXTRAVAGANT DEBUSSY

Eastman Philharmonia; Eastman School Symphony Orchestra; Eastman Wind Ensemble; Eastman Chorale

With illustrated introductions by Eastman Professor of Music Theory Marie Rolf

Printemps (1887), Prix de Rome work for orchestra

Three transcriptions for wind ensemble:

   Hommage à Rameau from Images, arr. Donald Hunsberger

   Sarabande from Pour le piano, arr. Mark Scatterday

   Marche écossaise, arr. Mark Scatterday 

Nocturnes (1899) for orchestra and women’s chorus (critical edition by Denis Herlin)

   Nuages; Fêtes; Sirènes

Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (1911) Acts IV and V (critical edition by Eiko Kasaba and Pierre Boulez)

Wed, Oct 17 at 8pm

Kilbourn Hall

INSPIRATIONAL DEBUSSY

Musica Nova performs The Debussy Project: New works by Eastman composers, inspired by Debussy’s piano prelude “Des pas sur la neige” 

Sat, Oct 20 at 8pm

Kilbourn Hall

INTIMATE DEBUSSY

Eastman faculty and students

A prism chamber concert featuring non-stop, surround-sound performance, with arrangements of some of Debussy’s best-known piano music and songs 

Fri, Oct 26 at 8pm

Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre

THEATRICAL DEBUSSY

Pelléas Redux – a crossover arrangement of Debussy’s opera to accompany P. Craig Russell’s comic book Pelléas et Mélisande 

Sat, Oct 27 from 9:30am to 5pm

Hatch Recital Hall

DEBUSSY PREMIERES

Presentations and the North American premiere of five new songs

With guest scholars Denis Herlin, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Mylène Dubiau-Feuillerac, Université de Toulouse; and Eastman Professors of Music Theory Marie Rolf and Jonathan Dunsby 

Additional 

Oct 1-27 

Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music

DEBUSSY TREASURES

An exhibit of Debussy manuscripts, including a complete working draft of La Mer, and “Minstrels” arranged by Debussy for violin and piano for Arthur Hartmann

www.esm.rochester.edu