Joan Tower -- hailed by the New Yorker magazine as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time" -- will visit Ithaca College as part of the Enduring Masters series on Tuesday, February 5. Featuring performances by various Ithaca College ensembles, "The Chamber Music of Joan Tower" will start at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
Tower will also appear on Monday, February 4, to give an informal interview and lecture about her life and career at 8:15 p.m. in the Iger Lecture Hall in the Whalen Center. Both events are free and open to the public.
Joan Tower has enjoyed a celebrated career as a composer. She was the first woman ever to receive the Grawemeyer Award in Composition in 1990. In January 2004, Carnegie Hall's Making Music series featured a retrospective of Tower's work. This special event showcased numerous artists who regularly perform her music, including the Tokyo String Quartet, pianists Melvin Chen and Ursula Oppens, violist Paul Neubauer, oboist Richard Woodhams, and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble.
Even as she prepares for her 70th birthday in 2008, Tower is looking forward as much as she is looking back on a career that already spans over five decades.
Supported by a grant from the New York State Music Fund, the Enduring Masters series is a collaboration between the Ithaca College School of Music, the Gerontology Institute, and the Linden Center for Creativity and Aging. The New York State Music Fund was established by the New York attorney general at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Enduring Masters Website
