The UMKC Conservatory is pleased to announce that Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon returns to the Conservatory as the Barr Institute Laureate March 14–17, 2017. Her first laureate residency visit was September 27–30, 2016.
Jennifer Higdon is a major figure in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in music for her Violin Concerto and a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances each year of her works, and blue cathedral is one of America’s most performed contemporary orchestral works, with more than 600 performances worldwide since its premiere in 2000. Her works have been recorded on nearly sixty CDs. Higdon’s most current project was an opera based on the best-selling novel, Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier. It was co-commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia and Minnesota Opera in collaboration with North Carolina Opera. Most recently, Higdon won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere. She holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press.
While she is at the Conservatory Higdon will meet with students and faculty, speak in several classes and on a CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association) conference panel, and attend rehearsals and performances. Some of her residency is listed below.
Wed., 3/15/17
4–5:15 PM Percussion Ensemble coaching, room 323, James C. Olson Performing Arts Center
7 PM Words + Music master class with the Coterie Theater and Lyric Opera, Frost Production Arts Center, 712 E. 18th St., KCMO
Thur, 3/16/17
6 PM LGBTQ+ Lecture followed by reception. Jennifer’s talk is Inspiration Through Love, This will be a discussion about the history of gays, lesbians, and women in classical music, and how things have changed over time, as well as how identity has affected and inspired the making of art., UMKC Student Union 401BC
Fri., 3/17/17
11:15a AM–12 PM, CBDNA A Forum on Women Composers, Carolyn Barber, University of Nebraska, Jennifer Higdon, and Chen Yi
2 PM: Piano studio (Robert Weirich's studio) coaching, Grant Recital Hall
3–5 PM: Composer’s Forum on music business with Zhou Long, The Business Side of Being a Composer...Bring your Questions!, room 521, James C. Olson Performing Arts Center
7:30 PM UMKC Conservatory Wind Symphony concert, Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Jennifer Hidgon's appearance is supported in part through a grant from The Patricia and Howard Barr Institute for American Composition Studies at UMKC.