Variety Marks 2011-12 Season of Edward T. Cone Concert Series at Institute for Advanced Study

Performances by composers, solo pianists and three noted ensembles will be featured in the Institute for Advanced Study’s 2011-12 Edward T. Cone Concert Series, curated by Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel. Known as the Harmonic Series, the season will explorethe wide variety of aesthetic perspectives in art music, especially of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“This season, the Harmonic Series will present four fresh and unique approaches to the classical tradition,” said Bermel. In the opening concerts on November 4 and 5, The Composer Performs, Bermel will team up with gifted young pianist/composer Timothy Andres as they present their own works viewed through the prism of older compositions by Schumann, Ives and Copland.

On December 2 and 3, world-renowned jazz pianists and composers Uri Caine and Mario Laginha will reinterpret baroque forms, including canon and fugue, at the border of composition and improvisation. This will be followed on February 17 and 18, 2012, by Grammy-award winning sextet eighth blackbird, which returns to the Institute with an exciting collection of new works from young American and European composers.

Timothy Andres, photo by Mingzhe Wang	Mario Laginha, photo by Jorge Alves	Music from Copland House, photo by J. Henry Fair

Finally, on March 23 and 24, 2012, Music from Copland House will initiate an innovative collaboration with Music from China, featuring works written for hybrid ensembles made up of Western and Chinese instruments.

Concert talks, providing discussions of the music on the program and related topics, will be held each Friday following the 8 p.m. performance and each Saturday at 6:30 p.m. preceding the 8 p.m. performance in Wolfensohn Hall.

Concert tickets are free but must be reserved online at www.ias.edu/air/music. For further information about the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program, visit the website or call (609) 734-8228.

About Edward T. Cone

Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University and was affiliated with its music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he had a close and long-standing relationship with this institution. During his lifetime, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere. The Institute’s concert series has carried the Edward T. Cone name since 2007.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of approximately 30, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program

The Artist-in-Residence program was established at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 to create a musical presence within the Institute community and to have in residence a person whose work could be experienced and appreciated by scholars from all disciplines. Pianist Robert Taub was the first Artist-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, followed by composer Jon Magnussen, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2000 to 2007. Paul Moravec served as Artist-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008 and Artistic Consultant from 2008 to 2009. Derek Bermel, a composer, clarinetist, conductor and jazz and rock musician, served as Artist-in-Residence from 2009 to June 2013.

Composer Sebastian Currier became Artist-in-Residence in July 2013. His complex and imaginative works have been performed by such eminent artists and ensembles as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Berlin Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet and the New York Philharmonic. A recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, Currier has received numerous honors including the Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.