Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The City of Tomorrow, a leading international ensemble dedicated to the performance and creation of new music for winds, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus as part of the Cole Performing Arts Series.
A traveling quintet, COT has performed across the U.S. and Canada, making their New York debut in April 2013 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, according to Chris Ayer, professor of clarinet at SFA. It is the only wind quintet to win a gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in more than 10 years.
"We're very fortunate to have a wind quintet of this caliber on our campus," Ayer said. "The wind quintet instrumentation is unique among chamber groups in that it consists of five very different instruments. Flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, while all in the woodwind family, have very different properties and tendencies and are more different than they are alike. Add to that a brass instrument, the horn, and you have a very interesting ensemble.
"The differences in the instruments provide certain technical challenges with tuning, but also offer opportunities with the availability of many different timbres and sounds," he explained. "This contrasts with string quartet, brass quintet or saxophone quartet, which are all consorts of like instruments."
Although the quintet champions new music and will be doing a recital of contemporary music, Ayer said, the group will also perform one of the staples of the wind quintet repertoire, "Summer Music," by the iconic American composer Samuel Barber.
The City of Tomorrow has been an ensemble in residence at Western Michigan University and Williams College in Massachusetts. The musicians have also presented master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and colleges throughout the Midwest and West Coast.
The group features Camila Barrientos Ossio, clarinet; Elise Blatchford, flute; Sturat Breczinski, oboe; Laura Miller, bassoon; and Leander Star, horn.
The City of Tomorrow's performance is a presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407.