Luther’s ‘Music in the Shape of a Pear’ concert features new music

Two events on October 16 will bring the sounds of contemporary music to the Jensen-Noble Hall of Music on the Luther College campus. A composition/performance colloquium will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Jensen Choir Room and a concert at 8:00 p.m. in the Noble Recital Hall.

The event, titled “Music in the Shape of a Pear,” will feature newly composed music for flute and harp.  Both the concert and the colloquium, organized by Brooke Joyce, Luther College assistant professor of music, are free and open to the public.

Performing guest ensemble, New Prairie2, featuring Claudia Anderson, flute, and Jeanmarie Kern Chenette, harp, will lead the composition and performance colloquium at 5:30 p.m.  The group will also perform at the 8 p.m. concert.

The concert includes the world premiere of two compositions, “Suite for a Little Angel” by Cedar Rapids composer Jerry Owen, and “4 Ways of Looking at the Moon” by Joyce.

Works by Katherine Hoover, Astor Piazzolla and Jeremy Beck will also be in the program. Several Luther musicians will also be featured on the program.

Anderson and Chenette are founding members of New Prairie Camerata, a Grinnell-based chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of music in historical and architecturally significant spaces.  They recently performed in Grinnell’s “Jewel Box” bank, Grinnell College’s Falconer Gallery and in an arts and crafts-style Grinnell private residence.

This year their work will extend beyond Grinnell to performing at the First Congregational Church in Waterloo, Iowa and at the University of Northern Iowa Art Gallery. Anderson and Chenette are on the music faculty at Grinnell College and perform with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and the Des Moines Symphony.

New Priairie2’s appearance at Luther is part of a concert tour organized by the Iowa Composers Forum.