The 35th annual Bowling Green State University New Music Festival will showcase the work of more than 30
guest composers and performers Wednesday through Saturday.
The international festival includes concerts, lectures and an art exhibition. This year’s featured guests
include award-winning composer Paul Dresher with his ensemble Double Duo and visual artist Nathalie
Miebach.
Organized by BGSU’s MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, the College of Musical Arts and the Fine
Arts Center Galleries, the festival supports the creation of new work and engages both the University
and city communities in the process of music appreciation and awareness.
The festival gets underway at Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Willard Wankelman Gallery with an exhibition and
performance of "Sound/Sculpture," works by Miebach and Harry Bertoia, with performances by
the Gamelan Kusuma Sari and the Combustible Arts Ensemble. Artist talks begin at 6, performances at 7.
The exhibition continues through Saturday.
Composer talks and performances begin Thursday morning, and culminate with a concert of orchestral and
wind ensemble works by Dresher, BGSU’s Distinguished Artist Professor Marilyn Shrude, Paul Hong-Da Chin
and Kevin Walczyk.
The performance begins at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 in Kobacker Hall at the Moore Musical Arts Center. Tickets for
the Saturday concert can be purchased at www.bgsu.edu/arts.
Dresher is an internationally active composer noted for his ability to integrate diverse musical
influences into his own coherent and unique personal style.
He pursues many forms of musical expression including experimental opera/music theater, chamber and
orchestral composition, live instrumental electro-acoustic music, musical instrument invention, and
scores for theater and dance.
He has received commissions from such organizations as the Library of Congress, the Spoleto Festival USA,
the Kronos Quartet, and Chamber Music America. He has performed or had his works performed throughout
the world, and his music has been recorded on nine record labels.
Classically based and inventively performed, Double Duo combines traditional chamber instruments,
performed by Bang on a Can All Stars founding member Lisa Moore on piano, and long-time collaborator
Karen Bentley Pollick on violin, together with a pair of newly invented instruments: a Marimba Lumina
played by percussionist Joel Davel and a Quadrachord, a 14-foot long, guitar-like stringed instrument
invented by Dresher that is plucked, bowed, hammered and strummed.
Miebachis a Boston-based sculptor who translates weather data into woven sculpture and musical scores.
She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including a TED Global Fellowship. Her work has
been shown in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Her sculptures have been reviewed by national and international publications, spanning fine arts, design,
technology and science audiences, including Art In America, Art News, Sculpture, The New York Times,
Form, Wired – UK and American Craft Magazine.
(Story provided by BGSU Office of Marketing and Communications)
