DATE, TIME, AND PLACE: Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. in Strong Auditorium, University of Rochester River Campus.
WHAT: A concert featuring Eastman School of Music trio Strings & Hammers will honor the 80th birthday of composer Krzysztof Penderecki, one of today's foremost contemporary composers.
Strings & Hammers features Eunmi Ko on piano, Sini Virtanen on violin, and Julia Shulman on double bass. The trio's performance of three pieces will be accompanied by a short lecture on the different stylistic periods of Penderecki. In addition to Penderecki's birthday, this event also marks the 40th anniversary of the sister cities relationship between Rochester and Krakow, Penderecki's home city.
Born November 23, 1933, in Dębica, Poland, Penderecki studied at the Krakow Conservatory, where he later became a professor. Soon after graduating in 1958, Penderecki composed one of his best-known and oft-performed compositions, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, which received a UNESCO prize in 1960. This piece was followed by several successes, including what was considered his first major work, "St. Luke's Passion," commissioned by the West German Radio in Cologne to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Munster Cathedral in 1966.
Penderecki is the recipient of multiple Grammy Awards and was named "Best Living Composer" at the Midem Classic in Cannes in 2000. He has received many honorary doctorates and professorships from various universities, including the University of Rochester, as well as honorary memberships from music conservatories around the world.
SPONSOR: The University of Rochester's Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies and the Department of Music.
ADMISSION: Free.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Skalny Center at 585.275.9898.