School of Music to Host the New Music Cafe

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –– The Illinois Wesleyan University School of Music will host the New Music Cafe, a program of recent concert music performed by IWU musicians, including a libretto written by Nancy Steele Brokaw ’71 and performed by Michelle Vought, on Thursday, March 7 beginning at 8 p.m. in Presser Hall’s Westbrook Auditorium.

The New Music Cafe is directed by the Fern Rosetta Sherff Professor of Music David Vayo, with Professor of Music Mario J. Pelusi as Conductor-in-Residence. The program will feature many performances by Illinois Wesleyan faculty and students.

Among the musicians featured in the program are Adjunct Instructor and Accompanist in the School of Music Nancy Pounds and Vayo on piano, Professor of Music William West on alto flute, and Michelle Vought performing a libretto written by Nancy Steele Brokaw ’71.

The New Music Cafe program focuses on the most recent concert music compositions. The performance will feature Art of Agony: Percy Grainger by Robert Davidson, LHC for Saxophone Quartet and Bunun Fantasy for Alto Flute and Fixed Media by Roger Zare, Kavanaugh by Martha Horst, Cleopatra and the Plastic Surgeon by Danielle Fisher, and the world premiere of A Tale in Four Parts by Josef Tal.

This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series to celebrate contemporary composers and their work.

 For more information, please contact the School of Music at (309) 556-3061.

By Megan Baker ’21