The University of Puget Sound School of Music residencies of guest composers Joel Puckett and Jake Runestad are supported by the Norton Clapp Visiting Artist Endowment.
        The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society concerned with the fellowship, collaboration, career goals, and objectives of new and contemporary music composers and those interested in topics related to composition. Founded in 1965, it today has about 1,500 members from the United States, Canada, and overseas.

[cid:image001.png@01CEA595.3E8C3810] Feb. 23, 2018 Contact: Shirley Skeel, sskeel@pugetsound.edu<mailto:sskeel@pugetsound.edu> ph. 253.879.2611, cell. 510.684.6715 Society of Composers Eight Concerts of Modern Classical Music The SCI holds its national conference in Tacoma for the first time Everyone is invited to the free, public concerts Thursday, March 1-Saturday, March 3 [cid:image006.jpg@01D3AC80.FE679930]TACOMA, Wash. - Fifty-seven composers of modern classical music are coming from around the country to Tacoma-and you are invited to join them to hear their highly imaginative and eclectic new works. Eight public concerts, free and open to all, will form part of the 2018 Society of Composers, Inc. National Conference, hosted at University of Puget Sound, March 1-3, by the college's School of Music. The concerts will feature the dynamic ensemble Heartland Marimba Quartet<http://www.marimbaone.com/community/artists/heartland-marimba-quartet> and eight Puget Sound musical groups, including the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Adelphian Concert Choir, and Dorian Singers. Critically acclaimed composers Joel Puckett<http://joelpuckett.com/> and Jake Runestad<http://jakerunestad.com/> will be leading a panel discussion, and each will join the audience as one of their major works is performed. Puckett is a music chair at Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, whose opera Black Sox<https://mnopera.org/event/the-black-sox-scandal/> will premiere in March 2019. Runestad is the Minneapolis-based creator of the groundbreaking Dreams of the Fallen<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_of_the_Fallen> and a recipient of the 2017 McKnight Fellowship. The public concerts over three days at the Society of Composers Inc. (SCI)<http://www.societyofcomposers.org/> conference will include four world premieres: three by student winners of the SCI Student Commission Competition, and a concerto for marimba quartet and wind ensemble by Paul Alan Price-Brenner. There also will be a musical celebration of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth. "This is a great opportunity to take the pulse of modern classical music," said Rob Hutchinson<https://www.pugetsound.edu/faculty-pages/rhutchinson/>, professor of music theory and composition at Puget Sound. "There will be atonal pieces, aleatoric<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleatoric_music> pieces, electro-acoustic pieces with real-time interactive computer processing, pieces incorporating the sound and aesthetic of popular music, as well as neo-tonal and neo-romantic music." Keith Ward, director of the School of Music, said visitors will be treated to a musical feast, from the traditionally lyrical to progressive works. "The SCI conference is a three-day celebration of the creative spirit, an event that promises to be both memorable and indelible." The free public concerts will all be in Schneebeck Concert Hall, near the corner of Union Avenue and N. 14th Street on campus. Tickets are not required. Most of the works are by SCI members, in a program including: Thursday, March 1 7:30 p.m. Heartland Marimba Quartet: including SCI student winners' world premieres Friday, March 2 10 a.m. Chamber Music 1 2 p.m. Electro-Acoustic Music 7:30 p.m. Symphony Orchestra: SCI compositions and a celebration of Leonard Bernstein Saturday, March 3 10 a.m. Chamber Music 2 2 p.m. Choral and Vocal Concert: including a work by Jake Runestad 3:30 p.m. Chamber Music 3 7:30 p.m. Wind Ensemble: with Paul Alan Price-Brenner world premiere and Joel Puckett adagio The University of Puget Sound School of Music residencies of guest composers Joel Puckett and Jake Runestad are supported by the Norton Clapp Visiting Artist Endowment. The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society concerned with the fellowship, collaboration, career goals, and objectives of new and contemporary music composers and those interested in topics related to composition. Founded in 1965, it today has about 1,500 members from the United States, Canada, and overseas. For directions and a map of the University of Puget Sound campus: pugetsound.edu/directions<http://www.pugetsound.edu/directions.xml> For accessibility information please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu<mailto:accessibility@pugetsound.edu> or 253.879.3931, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility<http://www.pugetsound.edu/accessibility/>. Photo on page: Heartland Marimba Quartet Tweet this: Hear the latest in modern classical music. It sizzles! Society of Composers 2018 national conference @univpugetsound Mar 1-3 #Tacoma #classicalmusic http://bit.ly/2okOVg9 Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/univpugetsound<http://www.twitter.com/univpugetsound> -0- Visit our "Newsroom" page featuring a searchable index of Puget Sound sources on a wide variety of topics at http://www.pugetsound.edu/about/offices--services/office-of-communications/newsroom/ University of Puget Sound is a 2,600-student, national undergraduate liberal arts college in Tacoma, Wash., drawing students from 46 states and 8 countries. Puget Sound graduates include Rhodes and Fulbright scholars, notables in the arts and culture, entrepreneurs and elected officials, and leaders in business and finance locally and throughout the world. A low student-faculty ratio provides Puget Sound students with personal attention from faculty members who have a strong commitment to teaching and offer 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 areas of study. Puget Sound is the only national, independent undergraduate liberal arts college in Western Washington, and one of just five independent colleges in the Northwest granted a charter by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious academic honor society.