World-Renowned Musicians and Scholars perform at UNC Asheville, October 2-6, 2014
by Steve Plever
Musicians, scholars and activists from around the nation and abroad will gather at UNC Asheville October 2-6 for Ecomusics & Ecomusicologies 2014: Dialogues – five days of concerts and workshops connecting music and ecological awareness.
Music performances will be held at UNC Asheville’s indoor and outdoor spaces and extend to off-campus music venues. Scholars from 26 U.S. states, Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom and Australia will contribute to workshops that comprise the third annual global Ecomusicologies conference. Prior conferences were held in Brisbane, Australia (2013) and New Orleans (2012).
“Dialogues – verbal, musical and ecological – are keys to our interconnected world,” said William Bares, conference organizer, jazz pianist, and UNC Asheville assistant professor of music. “Music reaches people on the emotional level and can help us ‘feel’ connections to each other and to the larger environment.”
“Hosting this international conference allows UNC Asheville to showcase and celebrate transdisciplinary sustainability scholarship, practice and activism,” said Sonia Marcus, UNC Asheville director of sustainability. “It will be the centerpiece of the university’s Fall Greenfest highlighting campus sustainability efforts.”
Ecomusics and Ecomusicologies 2014’s first day will be highlighted by The Crossroads Project – a collaboration between the Fry Street Quartet and physicist Robert Davies of Utah State University, who focuses on communicating the science of climate change, energy and sustainability. The concert takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 2, 2014 at UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium.
Seven-time Grammy Award winner Paul Winter, whose pioneering compositions incorporating recordings of whales and wolves raised awareness about endangered species, will present The Music of Humans and Other Species at Isis Restaurant and Music Hall in West Asheville at 8 p.m. Friday, October 3, 2014.
Outdoor music will envelop UNC Asheville’s campus at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, October 4, 2014 when 99 percussionists led by Andy Bliss and the nief-norf Project perform Inuksuit by composer John Luther Adams, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for music.
Some events are free and open to the public. Conference registration is $125 for the public, $75 for students and $30 for UNC Asheville students, and includes admission to all concerts, workshops and panels. Tickets to individual concerts are also available. Registration, tickets and information are available at ecomusicologies.org.