Fauré Centennial Festival

Sometimes, the best way to honor an artist’s memory is to create something new. To look forward, not backward––or maybe both at once. In 20th-century France, musical homage to an artist was sometimes carried out within a composer’s lifetime. Gabriel Fauré’s students twice honored him with such compositional tributes in 1900 and 1922; Maurice Ravel and Jean Roger-Ducasse composed music for both occasions. Tonight’s concert premieres nine newly commissioned works—five by established composers and four by students, all from the United States. We placed no constraints on the way in which they chose to reflect on Fauré’s legacy except length and instrumentation (five or fewer instruments). The scores amaze with their beauty and diversity, ranging from the playful to the melancholic, from songs to piano pieces to saxophone quartets. 

David Conte and Emile Serper hail from the Bay Area; Amanda Harberg from New Brunswick, New Jersey; Stacy Garrop from Evanston, Illinois; and Charles Shadle from Boston. Carter Pann, Blake Clawson, Abby Kellems and Keenan Powell are Colorado composers. All nine composers will be present for their premieres, renewing an experiment last carried out 102 years ago.

This event is sponsored by the Dr. C. W. Bixler Family Foundation, CU Boulder Research & Innovation Office (RIO) and CU Boulder Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA).

Event image courtesy of Juniper Septembre.

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View the program here.