New Music Live bringing guest composer to campus

School of Music & Theatre will host composer Tom Cipullo as the guest artist-in-residence for the first event in the 2017-18 New Music Live series on Sept. 28-29. New Music Live this year will explore the human voice and the world of vocal potential, according to Dr. Carol Dusdieker, director of the School of Music & Theatre.

During his two-day residency, Cipullo will conduct a vocal masterclass with Heidelberg students at 8 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 28), in Brenneman Music Hall. His visit will culminate in Tom Cipullo Songfest, a concert of his music at 7 p.m. Friday (Sept. 29), also in Brenneman. The campus community is invited to both the masterclass and the concert.

“Tom’s visit is all about exploring the relationship between text and music, and how poetry and prose inspire vocal compositions,” Dusdieker said.

Repertoire for the concert is based on Cipullo’s composition, A Visit with Emily. The work is a powerful, evocative and beautiful cantata for soprano, mezzo, tenor and baritone, drawn from the texts of Emily Dickinson and T.W. Higginson.

Several guest performers will be featured on the concert. In addition to Carol (soprano) and 'Berg voice instructor Renee Clair (mezzo soprano), soloists include Benjamin Bunsold (tenor); Benjamin Czarnota (baritone), Alta Dantzler (alto) and Timothy Cheek (pianist).

Cipullo’s works are performed regularly throughout the United States and with increasing frequency internationally. The winner of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2013 Sylvia Goldstein Award from Copland House, and the 2013 Arts & Letters Award from the American Academy, Cipullo has received numerous commissions by ensembles and solo artists.

He is the composer of two operas. The most recent, After Life, was commissioned by Music of Remembrance and premiered by that organization in Seattle and San Francisco in 2014. Glory Denied (2007), after the book by journalist Tom Philpott, is based on the true story of America’s longest-held prisoner of war. The piece has been performed by the Fort Worth Opera, Opera Memphis, Chelsea Opera, Opera Idaho and Vulcan Lyric Opera.

New Music Live is made possible by generous support from Berg Bravo, HU and the National Endowment for the Arts ARTWorks Grant.