‘American Audacity’: At Levine School, Music to Walk By

The Washington Post
Monday, April 11, 2005; Page C03

By Grace Jean

With faculty members as the performers, the Levine School of Music’s
aptly named “American Audacity” program Friday was an intriguing concert
featuring composers who use everything from recorded sounds to audience
members in their works.

Playing in tandem with computer-generated CDs posed no problems for
pianist Laurie Hudicek in Frances Thompson McKay’s haunting “Creek Bells
Frozen in Mourning.” She blended her crystalline tones with the recorded
watery sounds as fluidly as Leon Khoja-Eynatyan created myriad sounds on
vibraphone, timpani, gong and drums in William Kraft’s “Soliloquy.” The
percussionist startled listeners at times during the piece, but his
violent crescendos upon a snare drum in Pauline Oliveros’s “Single
Stroke Roll Meditation” were most provoking of all.

Audience members in Lang Recital Hall bravely produced a five-minute
performance of Oliveros’s “Tuning Meditation,” which required one to hum
while strolling around the room. Such an experience prompted more
listeners to accept composer John Supko’s invitation to walk around
during his “Without Stopping” for electric guitars, oboe, percussion,
keyboards and tape. Distinctive timbres emerged from the melee at times,
but only by standing near a performer could one prolong a particular
instrument’s prominence during the performance.

Kenneth Stilwell gave Antal Dorati’s Five Pieces for Oboe a charming
read, and set a meditative tone in his own composition “At the Altar of
the Stars,” with pianist Hudicek.