Pulitzer Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon returns to the UMKC Conservatory for the second year of her Barr Institute Laureateship, Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 2017 and April 19–25, 2018.
Her first laureate residency visit was September 27–30, 2016 and then again March 14–17, 2017.
During her November/December visit, Dr. Higdon will work with Conservatory students in a variety of ways, including attending orchestra readings of students’ works, followed by a debriefing of the reading session.
During this visit, Dr. Higdon will also visit Prairie Star Middle School, Leawood, KS to work with middle school students who are rehearsing her work Rhythm Stand. These students will also perform Rhythm Stand in a side by side concert with the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble, directed by Joseph Parisi, Dec. 6, 2017, 7:30 p.m., in White Recital Hall. Tickets for the concert are $8; $6 seniors; UMKC faculty, staff, and all students FREE with UMKC or student ID.
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. She has been nominated four times for a Grammy. 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.
Jennifer Hidgon's appearance is supported in part through a grant from The Patricia and Howard Barr Institute for American Composition Studies at UMKC.