John Cage Centenary Events in Music and Art

Twentieth-century American composer John Cage pushed the boundaries of traditional music, experimenting with sound, environment and audience perception. His avant-garde work influenced music, painting, dance, performance art and poetry. The son of an inventor, in 1930, after two years at Pomona College, Cage left for a less traditional education in Europe. Throughout the semester Pomona College will join in this world-wide celebration.

Concerts & Art

John Cage: Ox-Herding Pictures
September 4-December 6, 2012
Pomona College Museum of Art
The exhibit includes fifty-five rarely seen watercolors created by Cage in 1988 at the Mountain Lake Workshop in Blacksburg, Virginia, revealing the powerful influence of Zen in his life and work.
Read more

100th Birthday Party for John Cage
7:00-8:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Thatcher Music Building Lobby and Carolyn Lyon Garden
Three selections of music by John Cage's performed by percussionists Theresa Dimond, Alfred Cramer, Eric Lindholm, and Joti Rockwell, a vocal quartet with Donna M. Di Grazia, Tom Flaherty, Genevieve Feiwen Lee, and Gibb Schreffler, and the robot Chakisapa, with guidance from Barry Werger-Gottesmann and live input from the audience, plus birthday cake
Read more [pdf]

Keyboard Kaleidoscope with Genevieve Feiwen Lee
8:00 p.m. Saturday, September 22, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
A recital of music by Cage, Chopin, Couperin and Crumb on piano and harpsichord.

CANCELLED – Organ Recital with William Peterson
3:00 p.m., Sunday, September 30, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
Music by Pomona College and Claremont composers, including William G. Blanchard*, John Cage, Joseph Clokey*, Tom Flaherty*, Wilbur Held, Karl Kohn*, Orpha Ochse and others 

Lecture with author Kay Larson
5:00 p.m., Thursday, October 11, 2012
Pomona College Museum of Art - Art After Hours
Larson will speak about her book, Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists.
Read more

Pomona College Orchestra, Eric Lindholm, conductor
with soloists Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano and Cynthia Fogg, viola
8:00 p.m., Saturday, October 13
3:00 p.m. Sunday, October 14, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
Program: Wolf: Italian Serenade
               Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major
               Cage: 4'33"
               Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
               Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 72, Nos. 2 and 7
See the concert flyer [pdf]

Steve Roden Reads Excerpts
5:00 p.m., Thursday, October 25, 2012
Pomona College Museum of Art - Art After Hours
Roden reads from his new book 365 x 433, excerpted from his diary of performing John Cage's 4'33" every day in 2011.
Read more

Cage-O-Rama
8:00 p.m. Saturday, October 27, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
An all-Cage program with Karl and Margaret Kohn, piano; Theresa Dimond, percussion; Alfred Cramer, violin; Cynthia Fogg, viola; Tom Flaherty, cello; Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano; Eric Lindholm, conductor; students Julia Austenfeld, Anne-Marie Giuca, Hannah Hudson, Emily Wasserman, prepared piano; and others.
See the concert flyer [pdf] • Read the press release [pdf]

Keys and Sticks
with Third Coast Percussion, Theresa Dimond (percussion) and Genevieve Feiwen Lee (piano)
8:00 p.m. Saturday, November 10, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
Third Coast Percussion "one of the country's finest new music ensembles," (the Chicago Reader) unites with Dimond and Lee in this program of percussion and piano with music by Bresnick and Cage.
See the concert flyer [pdf] • Hear Third Coast Percussion

Third Coast Percussion
3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 11, 2012
Bridges Hall of Music
With excpetional talent and dedicated artistry, this "sonically spectacular" (Chicago Tribune) quartet will perform works by Cage, Clay, Reich and Thomas.
Hear Third Coast Percussion

 

All events are free and open to the public.

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