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IU Jacobs School of Music
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Last modified: Monday, February 12, 2007

"Extensions of the Tradition" concert presents works by African American composers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 12, 2007

William Banfield image

William Banfield

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University African American Arts Institute, in collaboration with the IU Jacobs School of Music and the Archives of African American Music and Culture, will present the annual concert, "Extensions of the Tradition," on Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall of the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Now in its 13th year at IU, the concert will include works by William C. Banfield, this year's artist-in-residence and professor of Africana Studies/Music and Society at Berklee University in Boston; David N. Baker, IU distinguished professor of music and chair of the Department of Jazz Studies; Tyron Cooper, former director of the IU Soul Revue and a second-year ethnomusicology doctoral student; and Marian Harrison, producer of this year's concert and fourth-year music composition doctoral student.

The theme for this year's concert is "The Enjoyment of Composition -- From Stage to Audience." The concert will be free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the lobby of the Musical Arts Center.

The program will include the compositions, Songs of the Past ... for the Future, by Cooper; Songs of Living and Dying, by Baker; Reflections of Life, by Harrison; and Harp Song and Joes Chose Slows Woes, by Banfield.

Banfield, who was director of the IU Soul Revue from 1992 to 1997, also will conduct a student forum on the business of composition in the Bridgewater Lounge of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, located at 725 N. Jordan Ave., beginning at noon on Feb. 26.

He established the Extensions of the Tradition concert series in 1988 at the University of Michigan, with the purpose of publicly performing works by African American composers, before bringing it to IU in 1993.

The concert's overall theme, "Extensions of the Tradition," refers to artistic expressions that are linked to a long history of African American composers. These composers speak in several "musical tongues," which civil rights leader W.E.B Du Bois once said exist "in a double consciousness" of European- and African-derived artistic traditions. This year's concert will highlight this fusion of musical languages of European art music, traditional African music, spirituals, blues and jazz -- expanding the European canon and creating innovative modes of black artistic expression.

Marian Harrison

Marian Harrison

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