By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

IF YOU GO

What: Music04 When: Saturday - June 20 Where: Werner Recital Hall at the University of Cincinnati and the Contemporary Arts Center Tickets: All concerts are free (except the June 18-19 opera). 556-9504 or visit www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx

FEATURED ARTISTS

Eighth Blackbird: This groundbreaking sextet is known for the music of today. Its members, who received graduate degrees at CCM, are in residence at the University of Chicago and the University of Richmond (Va.). Their name is from the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Saturday's 8 p.m. program includes Chen Yi's "Qi" (inner energy or spirit); Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez' Luciernagas (Fireflies) and David M. Gordon's "Dramamine." The sound world of Gordon's piece includes tuned flowerpots, a piano "prepared" with 26 bolts, a toy piano and Chinese bowl gongs. The concert will end with Schoenberg's edgy Pierrot Lunaire, with soprano Kathryn Hart. Chen Yi: She survived China's Cultural Revolution (Mao's reign of terror banning Western culture, 1966-76) to become one of the most prominent figures in the music world. The first woman to earn a master's degree in composition in China, Chen won the American Academy of Arts and Letters' $225,000 Charles Ives Living Award - the largest prize ever given to a classical composer. Her music (8 p.m. Tuesday) is a sophisticated fusion of Chinese color and Western forms. Kaija Saariaho: She's the hottest composer in Finland since Sibelius. Saariaho writes music that is sensuous, exotic and timeless. The American premiere of her opera, L'amour de loin (Love from Afar) mounted in Santa Fe in 2002, was sold out for weeks ahead. Her music is performed at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Frederic Rzewski: The American maverick and former CCM faculty member is known for pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. (His friendship with avant-garde composer John Cage was an influence.) "His music (8:30 p.m. June 19) is witty, direct, profound and not afraid to make a strong political statement," says Joel Hoffman, artistic director.

SCHEDULE

• CCM Music04 schedule

Music04, a nine-day festival of new music beginning Saturday at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, will be a journey of fresh and sometimes amazing sounds.

"We're just hoping to expand the listener's ear by taking them into very different sound worlds," says Lisa Kaplan, pianist in the cutting-edge group Eighth Blackbird, which performs on Saturday. "Each of the pieces we're playing creates strong, vivid images as you listen."

Three of the world's most fascinating contemporary composers, Chen Yi, Kaija Saariaho and Frederic Rzewski, will visit the unique festival to hear their music performed. Along with Eighth Blackbird - which will also participate in seminars and coach chamber groups - CCM faculty members and prominent guest musicians will converge at the festival, including cellist Gary and conductor Toby Hoffman, brothers of festival artistic director and composer Joel Hoffman, Chinese-American pianist Frederic Chiu (who created a sensation in the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition), violinist Philippe Graffin, violist Michael Kugel and others.

This year's festival includes the world premiere of a new opera, A King Listens, produced by CCM doctoral candidate Margaret Schedel, to be performed at the Contemporary Arts Center, downtown (June 18-19).

"The entire production team has developed an opera from conception to reality, with each art form influencing the other," says Schedel, the lead composer. Her team includes seven other composers and videographer Trinidad Mac-Auliffe from UC's department of Design, Architecture Art and Planning (DAAP).

"Anyone wanting to see what sophisticated young American culture is really all about won't want to miss the concert by Eighth Blackbird," says Joel Hoffman. "Mix with a panorama of pieces by bright young American composers across the festival, and you have a snapshot of where new concert music is these days."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com