Recent Pasts 20/21

During the past half-century, contemporary western art music has witnessed a period of exponential growth in the multiplicity of compositional styles it embraces. The modernist aesthetic, once the only legitimate choice for composers, has given way to a plurality of alternatives, inspired by a multiplicity of influences. While creating a wonderfully varied musical environment, these circumstances are changing the concert experience, and the artmusic itself is being transformed.

Recent Pasts 20/21 (2002-2006) was an exploration of today's musical landscape and the many points of view which define it.  An initiative of the Institute's Artist-in-Residence Program, directed by composer and then Artist-in-Residence Jon Magnussen, this four-year Music Series presented the music of our time through chamber music concerts, lectures, and other verbal presentations. To further increase the understanding of the wide variety of aesthetic perspectives in western art music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Recent Pasts 20/21 has an online component: the Words Series. This feature makes available for browsing, the lectures and other verbal presentations of Recent Pasts 20/21, with significant individuals in the music world.