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4/16/21 Percussion Ensemble 64.8 Spring Concert 2021

Alex Sommerfield

Please join us Friday, April 16th, at 7:30 pm AKT for the Ensemble 64.8 Percussion Concert.  The 51�������� Department of Music Facebook page will be live streaming the concert! The Ensemble 64.8 members are Morgan Ely, Treat Vanflein-Hage, Megan Anderson, Alan Quinn III, and Director Sean Dowgray. The concert will take place in the Davis Concert Hall. Works by Hannah Lash, Mitchell Peters, Evan Chapman, and Hanna Kulenty will be performed. 

Ensemble 64.6 focuses on different styles of music such as  classical, contemporary, and world music. They use a bunch of different instruments, drums, kongs, objects, advils, and brake drums to name a few. They Are able to show exploratory instrumental discipline. Members develop a number of different skills.

Ensemble 64.8 is directed by Sean Dowgray and is the resident percussion lab at the 51��������. Dedicated to experimentation and exploration, the group performs chamber music with an emphasis on works by noted American and European composers. The group is also dedicated to performing the music of living North American Composers. Some of the composers represented in the current ensemble repertory include Steve Reich, John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, John Wyre, Louis Andreissen, Robin Engelman, Giacinto Scelsi, Carlos Chavez, John Luther Adams, and Henry Cowell.

The 2007/08 academic year found the group performing in New York City with Valerie Naranjo, as well as performing in conjunction with noted composers Christopher Adler and Alaskan, Matthew Burtner. Members of the group also performed at the 2005 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Columbus, Ohio.  The 2008/09 academic year featured an Alaskan concert tour with renowned percussionist Bob Becker, and a spring concert featuring the percussion works of Iannis Xenakis. In 2010, the group traveled to Indianapolis to premiere six new percussion quintets as a part of the larger telematic opera, Auksalaq (composed by Matthew Burtner), performed at the Percussive Arts Society, Alaska Day of Percussion, the 51�������� Collaborative Arts Festival, and both the Chancellor's Convocation and 51�������� commencement ceremonies. Ensemble 64.8 was also featured on Focus Day at the 2010 PASIC, the Percussion Repertoire Festival in Lulea, Sweden, and the Kroumata Theatre, Stockholm, March 2011. The group performed at the Alaska premiere of the Len Kamerling/John Luther Adams documentary film, "Strange and Sacred Noise," and was a guest ensemble with the Arctic Chamber Orchestra performing Shchderin's "Carmen Suite." More recent engagements include concerts at The Music Gallery in Toronto, Canada, and the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener/Waterloo, Canada (May 2012).

Ensemble 64.8 is also proud to be invited by Chancellor Rogers to perform yearly at both the 51�������� commencement ceremony and the Chancellor's Convocation.

 

Hannah Lash Hannah Lash’s music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, the Times Center in Manhattan, the Chicago Art Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, Harvard University, The Aspen Music Festival & School, The Chelsea Art Museum, and on the American Opera Project’s stage in New York City.

Michell Peters Perhaps  Michell Peters' most popular piece is “Yellow After the Rain,” the ubiquitous four-mallet marimba solo performed by young players around the world. “The publisher told me it is probably the most performed marimba solo in history,” adds Feinstein. Almost fifty years after it was published, “Yellow After the Rain” is still considered a stepping stone between two- and four-mallet playing.

Evan Chapman Evan Chapman is a percussionist, composer, and filmmaker based in Philadelphia, PA. After receiving his BM in Classical Percussion Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Evan has gone on to build a prolific and unique career by seamlessly blending multimedia and contemporary music.

Hanna Kulenty Hanna Kulenty writes for solo instruments, chamber groups, large orchestra’s, opera, television plays and film music. Her compositions have been premiered during festivals throughout the world, like Huddersfield Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Münchener Biennale, Warsaw Autumn, Musica Polonica Nova and the Netherlands Music Days

 

Meet Ensemble 64.8 Directory, Sean Dowgrey

Sean Dowgray is a classical percussionist specializing in modern and contemporary music. Currently a doctoral candidate at UC San Diego, Dowgray has worked with every established music organization in the San Diego area including the San Diego Symphony, La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, red fish blue fish percussion ensemble, Palimpsest new music ensemble, RENGA, San Diego New Music, Art of Élan, the La Jolla Music Society. As a soloist, Dowgray has focused extensively on works that stretch the technical and expressive capabilities of both instrument and performer. This includes the work of Jason Eckardt, Josh Levine, Daniel Tacke, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lewis Nielson, David Lang, Christopher Adler, Brian Ferneyhough, Luciano Berio, Richard Barrett, and most recently Ylva Lund Bergner.

 

The 51�������� Music Department 

The 51�������� Department of Music strives to prepare its students for 21st century musical careers by providing a rigorous coursework curriculum and opportunities for a variety of musical experiences and numerous community partnerships. The 51�������� Music Department is a cultural hub of Fairbanks and by extension the rest of Alaska. It provides graduating students with performance and educational skills in preparation for the workforce in Alaska and beyond, as well as a broad skill-set of knowledge to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. Graduates of our program go on to diverse careers in music, or continue their studies in graduate programs in the United States and internationally.

The Department of Music has three distinct degree programs, the Bachelor of Arts in Music, Bachelor of Music in Performance and Bachelor of Music in Education, each with its own specialized focus. Starting your first year, you’ll gain valuable performance experience through a variety of large and small ensembles, workshops with guest artists, apprentice programs, master classes and state and national competitions. You can also specialize your degree to explore and shape your particular musical interests and career paths.

Each degree path stresses the importance of instilling a lifelong commitment to learning, creating music research opportunities that generate new artistic knowledge and insights as well as new perspectives on traditional knowledge. Part of this approach involves an understanding of non-Western frameworks of knowledge as cultivated in Alaskan indigenous musical culture and neighboring regions. Students are trained to engage the public as musical ambassadors in Fairbanks and other communities around Alaska and beyond.

Start your degree in Music at 51��������

 

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