Quartet Times Two
Kronos, Brubeck Brothers blow into Blackman
Modern music-different, stimulating, spanning a wide
emotional range-will be on display this spring when two highly acclaimed
quartets visit Blackman Auditorium. The Kronos Quartet, a world-renowned
string quartet hailed for its provocative renditions of new classical works,
will appear Friday, April 17. The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, featuring the
sons of jazz legend Dave Brubeck, will play Thursday, May 7.
Since 1973, the Kronos Quartet has dedicated itself to performing new
pieces that, as lead violinist David Harrington puts it, "expand the
palette of musical colors." The group's repertoire ranges from Bartok
to John Cage to Jimi Hendrix. Dressed in rock and roll garb, the musicians
create a riveting stage presence and a sense of adventure; performances
have included elements such as chanting, loud dramatic gestures, even the
immersion of small gongs in big bowls of water.
Kronos, which commissions twenty-five to thirty new pieces each year
and performs about 100 concerts annually, is constantly searching for new
music from all over the globe. The group has featured works by innovative
Western composers as well as those from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and
the Middle East. Harrington calls the pursuit of new music "time-consumingly
thrilling."
"I continually listen to music I'm not familiar with, composers
I'm not familiar with," says Harrington. "We have very close
relationships with composers who we think are writing music that feels
very special."
The group's goal? "We're interested in giving our audiences a sense
of the widest possible emotional range," Harrington says. "It's
not uncommon for people to find some of the music we play incredibly humorous.
And it's not uncommon for the total opposite to happen."
On the jazz front, the Brubeck Brothers continue traditions pioneered
by their father while adding new twists of their own. Group members include
Christopher Brubeck on bass, trombone, and piano; Dan Brubeck on drums;
Mike DeMicco on guitar; and Pete Levin on piano and organ.
Exposed to music from early ages, the brothers Brubeck were, in a sense,
"born musicians," says Christopher Brubeck. He has wonderful
memories of lying under the family's piano as a child, listening to his
father's groups rehearse. "I heard some great sounds under there,"
he says.
Today, the Brubeck Brothers concerts feature Dave Brubeck standards
like "Take Five" and "In Your Own Sweet Way," tunes
by other jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, and original pieces.
"The concerts really run the full dynamic range, from very soft
and intimate to very powerful," says the younger Brubeck, who still
plays and writes music with his seventy-seven-year-old father. "And
some of the music is in odd time signatures, like 5/4 or 11/8. If you're
a more traditional jazz fan, you can go to this concert and feel comfortable,
but hear something a little bit new. And if you're younger, you can go
there and not see a bunch of old farts in straw hats playing Dixieland.
The concerts have something for everyone."
Both quartets will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the events range
from $5 to $15 and are available by calling the university's ticket center
at 617-373-2247.
- Karen Feldscher
CALENDAR
ART
Faculty Exhibition, featuring works by art and architecture professors
Tom Starr and Peter Weiderspahn, March 23 to April 10, Ryder Hall lobby,
7 a.m. to 11 p.m. 373-2347.
MUSIC
Music at Noon, March 12, Curry Center, noon. 373-2671.
N.U. Orchestra Winter Concert, March 13, Curry Center Ballroom, 7:30
p.m. 373-2671.
Kronos Quartet, April 17, Blackman Auditorium, 7:30 p.m. $7.50$15.
373-2247.
African-American Institute Unity Ensemble Choir Concert, April 29, Curry
Student Center Ballroom, 79 p.m. 373-3143.
LECTURES
Vessels and Fields, with Wellington Reiter, principal, Urban Instruments,
Cambridge, April 9, 220 Classroom Building, 5:30 p.m. 373-2347.
Will We Run Out of Jobs Any Time Soon? with Robert Solow, Nobel laureate
in economics, April 13, Raytheon Amphitheater, Egan Center, 11:45 a.m.1:30
p.m. 373-2872.
The State of the Arts in South Africa, with Nadine Gordimer, Nobel laureate
in literature, April 22, Blackman Auditorium, 12:15 p.m. Reading by
Gordimer, April 23, Blackman, noon. 373-2572.
SYMPOSIUM
Symposium on the Freedom House Collection and the Muriel S. and Otto
P. Snowden Papers, April 2, 90 Snell Library, 15 p.m. Sponsored by
University Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department. 373-2351.
FORUM
Empowering People with Disabilities, sponsored by Project TEAMWORK's
Human Rights Squad Forum, April 30, Blackman Auditorium, 9 a.m2:30
p.m. 373-4025.
ETC.
N.U. Service Day, a day of service to the Boston community, April 25,
8:45 a.m.4:30 p.m., meet on the Krentzman Quadrangle. Activities also
taking place in six satellite cities. 373-3186.
Unity Day on the Quad, April 30, Krentzman Quadrangle, 11:45 a.m.1:30
p.m. 373-3143.
Poetry Readings Celebrating the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Samuel
French Morse Poetry Prize, April 16 and 30, 90 Snell Library, 7:30 p.m.
373-4546.
African-American Institute Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration Weekend,
featuring a conference, grand ball, concert, and awards banquet, May 13,
various locations. 373-3143.
ALUMNI EVENTS
Call alumni relations, 617-373-3186, or e-mail <alumni@nunet.neu.edu>.
March: Manhattan, reception with Albert Sacco, George A. Snell chair
of engineering, March 4, University Club, 1 West 54th Street, New York
City, 6:308:30 p.m. West Coast Florida, reception with President Freeland,
March 4, Renaissance Vinoy Resort, Tampa, 68 p.m.; luncheon with President
Freeland, March 5, Wyndemere Club House, Naples, noon2 p.m. West Palm
Beach, brunch with President Freeland, March 8, Four Seasons Resort, Palm
Beach, 11 a.m.1 p.m. Nursing, National Association of Pediatric, Nurse
Associates, and Practitioners conference, March 20, Sheraton Towers, Chicago,
57 p.m. Greater Boston, breakfast, March 26, Batterymarch campus,
7:309 a.m. Sigma Epsilon Rho, personal finance seminar, March 28,
450 Dodge, 24 p.m.
April: College of Business Administration, seventy-fifth anniversary
and alumni dinner, April 2, Curry Center Ballroom, time to be announced.
Civil Engineering, annual banquet, April 8, Curry Center Ballroom, 5:3010:30
p.m. Nursing, brown-bag lunch, April 9, McLeod Suite, Curry Center, 11:30
a.m.1:30 p.m. Washington, D.C., reception with President Freeland,
April 16, location and time to be announced.
May: College of Business Administration, May 4, breakfast meeting, 600
Club, Fenway Park, Boston, 7:309 a.m.
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