Concert of New Music Will Feature Michael Fiday

November 11, 2009

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Works never before performed at Baylor University will be presented at the New Music Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, in Roxy Grove Hall.

Michael Fiday, assistant professor of composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, has performed throughout the United States and Europe. He began training as a violinist at age 11 and started composing a few years later.

"Those who attend the concert can expect to hear a variety of new music for chamber musicians varying from atonal to tonal music," said Dr. Scott McAllister, professor of composition at Baylor.

Three of Fiday's works will be performed: Hands On, Protest Song and Three Winters. Also on the program are premieres from two Baylor graduate composition students, Margaret Crites and Jon Barrett. McAllister, Baylor's Composer-in- Residence, will end the concert with X³.

"My piece, X³, is inspired by Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water, McAllister said.

Performers will be Soon Cho, Seung-Hyun Lee, Helen Ann Shanley, Richard Shanley, Sandor Ostlund and Erin Schneider.

"One of the pieces by Michael is actually a protest song inspired by 9/11," McAllister said.

Fiday is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies from the American Composers Forum, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Headlands Center for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.

The concert is free and open to the public. Roxy Grove Hall is located in Waco Hall, 624 Speight Ave., on Baylor's campus.

For more information, contact (254) 710-3571 School of Music.

by Jessica Puente, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805