โItโs lovely to have your birthday celebrated, especially when you get older,โ Joan Tower told me when I interviewed her for Chronogram in 2013. โI do have a great lifeโฆIโm doing what I want by making music with great musicians. I feel like Iโm one of the most blessed people in the world.โ And next month the celebrated composer and Bard College educator will be reminded of her blessings again, when the collegeโs Conservatory of Music celebrates her 80th birthday with concerts at New Yorkโs DiMenna Center for Classical Music and Bardโs Fisher Center that feature the world premieres of three of her recent compositions.
The programs will include Towerโs Small Plus (2018) performed by Sล Percussion; Looking Back (2018) performed by the Da Capo Chamber Players; and Thank You (2018), with Dawn Upshaw conducting members of the Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program. Both concerts will feature noted musicians who are faculty members in the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Hereโs a timely placement of Part 1 of Towerโs landmark 1991 piece Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman:
The Joan Tower 80th Birthday Concerts will take place at Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City on September 9 at 4pm. Tickets are $25. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3520771. The second performance of the concert is on September 16 at 3pm at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on the Bard College campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Tickets start at $25. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit: www.fishercenter.bard.edu.
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This article appears in August 2018.
