The Joyce and Henry Schwob School of Music presents Blackbird Duo Concert. Please join us on November 8 at 8:00pm in Legacy Hall.

Guided by a spirit of collaboration, a deep commitment to education, and, most importantly, an unwavering optimism about the future, the chamber music collective Eighth Blackbird teams up with the UW Wind Ensemble to provide a unique educational opportunity at the University of Wisconsin. Students will learn from and perform alongside professional musicians at the top of their field leading up to this culminating concert event. Hear the groundbreaking new work for wind ensemble Vital Sines by Viet Cuong, whose work has been described as “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times in a concert that is sure to defy expectations. Other works to be announced.

Conducted by Scott Teeple, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at the Mead Witter School of Music

PRAx Presents: Eighth Blackbird + OSU Wind Ensemble

Four-time Grammy winners, the Eighth Blackbird sextet has been hailed as “one of the smartest, most dynamic ensembles on the planet” by the Chicago Tribune. These pioneers in creative contemporary music are the founders of the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and the Chicago Artists Workshop. The second half of the program includes a special performance with the OSU Wind Ensemble of "Vital Sines," a 25-minute composition by composer Viet Cuong - whose work has been praised as “wildly inventive” by the New York Times and who was featured in the Washington Post’s 2021 list of “Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow.”

This finale concert of the 2024 season of the University of Michigan Symphony Band is filled with special moments. We welcome world renowned contemporary sextet Eighth Blackbird to perform Viet Cuong's dynamic and inspiring Vital Sines, which was composed for the ensemble. The concert will conclude with a 90th birthday tribute to Director of Bands Emeritus H. Robert Reynolds, who will conduct a set of classic music by the incomparable Percy Grainger.

In this Schwartz-Artist-in-Residence Program, the Emory University Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Viet Cuong’s newly orchestrated Vital Sines featuring the Grammy Award-Winning sextet, Eighth Blackbird.

Spring 2024 Western Carolina University School of Music Catamount Concert Series

In his Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, Mason Bates uses a teeming array of sounds to portray sprites, sirens, a gryphon and other extraordinary beasts over 11 marvelously surreal movements. Einojuhani Rautavaara’s ethereal concerto for birds and orchestra features recorded bird calls from arctic Finland. Viet Cuong’s Vital Sines highlights the virtuosity of four-time Grammy Award-winning Chicago sextet Eighth Blackbird.

Tickets are free, $5 fee applies.

Location: Kaldor Hall, ground level

Free, no bookings required

Eighth Blackbird musicians Lina Andonovska (flute) and Matthew Duvall (percussion) will team up with Ensemble Offspring artists Claire Edwardes (percussion) and Lamorna Nightingale (flute) to perform works by Andy Akiho, Brenda Gifford, Philip Glass, Molly Joyce, Ella Macens and Ned McGowan. The selected compositions reflect colour, shape, movement and shades of light and dark through sound, reflecting Kandinsky’s own interest in the abstract forms of music.