The Music of Lou Harrison

Presented by New Albion Records and the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. “The Music of Lou Harrison (1917–2003), an American Original” includes Solo to Anthony Cirone, Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, and La Koro Sutro. Featuring the Riverside Choral Society—a 100-member chorus, conducted by Patrick Gardner—and Krista Bennion Feeney, violin, along with American Gamelan, a percussion orchestra.

Tickets: $45, 35, 25, 15

Listen to Chaconne from Suite for Violin and American Gamelan by Lou Harrison.

Lou Harrison (1917–2003) was an American original. Among other artists of the mid 20th century his work was what is now called “outsider art,” and he lived a life that was clearly outside the halls of the cultural institutions of the day. He developed a singular body of work that was inspired by studies of early music and tunings, and world music, as well as from the influence of other musical mavericks, such as Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and John Cage.

The three works on this program offer a generous glimpse of Lou Harrison’s musical world. Solo to Anthony Cirone, dedicated to the eponymous percussionist, is a work for tenor bells that was long lost, and has been performed around the world since its rediscovery. Suite for Violin and American Gamelan incorporates medieval dance rhythms, drones, mesmerizing gamelan patterns, and melodic variations. Finally, La Koro Sutro, a monumental work for large-scale chorus, gamelan, harp, and organ, presents in one huge bundle many of Harrison’s musical and personal preoccupations: percussion, the avoidance of functional harmony, Buddhism, and universalism.

New Albion Records was founded in San Francisco in 1984, to explore the world of art music. This is New Albion’s fourth concert event with the Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College. New Albion has also collaborated recently with the John Cage and Merce Cunningham Trusts.