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The music department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present a free, open rehearsal of two compositions in progress at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in Person Hall.

The music department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present a free, open rehearsal of two compositions in progress at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in Person Hall.

The program will be the first event in the 2010-11 Process Series, a program of UNC’s Office of the Executive Director for the Arts. It also will serve as a rehearsal for “Hopes, Dreams, Realities (Revisited),” a Nov. 13 concert at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall, in which the finished works will be performed.

The series, dedicated to the development of new and significant works in the performing arts, features presentations of works in progress. The rehearsal is a new feature of the Process Series, called Behind the Process. The audience will have the chance to discuss the works with the composers.

The two new compositions will be T. J. Anderson’s “In Front of My Eyes: An Obama Celebration,” and Allen Anderson’s “Remove/_________.”  The UNC New Music Ensemble, directed by music professor Stefan Litwin, will perform the pieces. 

Chapel Hill composer T. J. Anderson’s work is a musical portrait of President Barack Obama. Featuring Louise Toppin, soprano and UNC music professor, the music weaves together American spirituals with musical allusions to the President’s life. Toppin will sing poetry by Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate.

T.J. Anderson, who is not related to Allen Anderson, previously chaired the music department at Tufts University in Boston. He retired from Tufts as the Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus.

Allen Anderson’s piece, which includes a work for five singers and 11 instrumentalists, evokes the 19th-century removal of the Cherokee from their native lands in the Southeast.

 A UNC music professor, Allen Anderson previously taught at Columbia University, Wellesley College and Brandeis University.  At UNC in 1999, he received a Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. He teaches composition, counterpoint and 20th-century music.

“These are both lengthy and musically tricky compositions that demand concentration and skill from the players,” Allen Anderson said. “We have the unusual luxury of several months of rehearsal to prepare them. We are able to try different approaches and work passages to our satisfaction. While the official premiere isn’t for another six weeks, this mid-preparation exhibition is an opportunity for us to gauge our progress.”

Person Hall is on the McCorkle Place quad, across Franklin Street from the Post Office. For more information, visit http://eda.unc.edu/programs/theprocessseries.

Process series contact: Joseph Megel, (919) 843-7067, megel@email.unc.edu
Office of the Executive Director for the Arts contact: Reed Colver, (919) 843-1833, rcolver@unc.edu
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589

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