MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMER AND COMPOSER JOHN FERGUSON TO PERFORM TONIGHT
Pianist and multimedia performer and composer John Ferguson will be featured in recital assisted by the ensemble Creo, under the direction of Andrey Kasparov, Nov. 16 in Chandler Recital Hall of the Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center. The recital is free and open to the public, seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. This program was made possible by a grant from the F. Ludwig Diehn Music Fund of The Norfolk Foundation.
Ferguson's unusual programs reflect his diversity as a composer and musician. He sometimes works in collaboration with local artists and poets, frequently pairing visual and theatrical artworks with acoustic and electronic music. This performance will include work by Scriabin, Mayuzumi, Reich, Young, Feldman, Wolff and his own compositions. These works will be performed by Ferguson on piano, violin and electric guitar assisted by Creo and by vocalist Murray Kidd.
Ferguson earned his doctorate in piano with minors in violin, composition, and music history from Indiana University were he developed his interest in multimedia performance. His projects included "Duality," a multimedia recital in which classic works of electronic music were paired with visual and theatrical artworks of Ferguson's own design; an outdoor chamber music recital juxtaposing his own compositions with those of Beethoven, John Cage, Aaron Jay Kernis, Nam June Paik and P.D.Q. Bach; and the premiere of his "Concerto for Musicologist" with featured soloist J. Peter Burkholder.
He also holds undergraduate degrees in violin and piano from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, Calif. As an undergraduate, Ferguson participated in numerous competitions, winning the conservatory's Outstanding Performer Award, first prize in the Lodi Symphony Concerto Competition, a Presser Scholarship, and second prize in both the Music Teachers Association of California Competition and San Francisco State Young Pianists' Competition.
For more information call 683-3020.