Ohio University is going down under — to Australia, that is.
Australian composer-pianist Erik Griswold will lecture and perform on Sunday in the Recital Hall of Robert Glidden Hall, after a New Music Ensemble performance earlier that day.
The New Music Ensemble performance will include several works by Griswold, with the evening performance featuring three of his compositions, including “In the Dream,” “Time Crystals” and “Concerto for Prepared Piano and Percussion.”
The OU Percussion Ensemble will perform “In the Dream;” Griswold will have a prepared piano solo performance with “Time Crystals;” and five OU affiliates will perform “Concerto.”
Since 1998, Griswold has completed 33 compositions, most of which have been completed in the past eight years.
“I just can’t help myself,” Griswold said. “I keep having these ideas. One of the best things about being a composer is having the chance to share ideas with musicians from all over the world. The creative exchange is inspiring.”
Griswold’s performance at OU has a few years of history behind it. Roger Braun, director of percussion studies in the School of Music, met Griswold at a Percussive Arts Society International Convention conference in 2009.
“(Griswold) emailed me out of the blue over the summer saying he was going to be in America and wanted to stop somewhere in between his scheduled tour spots in Chicago and New York, so I talked to my colleagues,” Braun said.
No one from OU will be performing with Griswold, but he will be coming to Athens on Friday to listen to the ensembles perform his works and give comments on those performances.
“We perform so often with only the sheet music as our connection to the composer.” said David Crider, a second-year graduate student studying percussion performance. “But when the person is there, you have an opportunity to get inside a composition and make it personalized.”
mg986611@ohiou.edu
