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  UB faculty member Eric Huebner will perform in two concerts scheduled for this month.

By SUE WUETCHER

Published: March 15, 2012

March is turning out to be a busy month for UB faculty member Eric Huebner.

An assistant professor of piano in the Department of Music, Huebner will lead several of his students in a free concert on March 21 devoted to pieces by avant-garde composer John Cage in celebration of Cage’s 100th birthday.

A little more than a week later, on March 30, the award-winning Antares quartet, of which Huebner is a member, will visit the university as part of the Slee/Visiting Artist Series.

Both concerts are presented by the Department of Music in association with The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music.

The concert of Cage music, “The Complete Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano by John Cage,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

Performing with Huebner will be students Antonella Di Giulio, Seungsuk Park, Alicia See, Mo Su and Ana Vafai.

The approximately hour-long program will feature a collection of 20 pieces: Sonatas I-XVI and 4 Interludes. Written soon after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy, which is reported to have had a major influence on some of his work, the pieces are supposed to express the eight permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition.

The concert by the Antares quartet will take place at 7:30 p.m. March 30 in Lippes Concert Hall.

The program will feature work by Igor Stravinsky, Roger Reynolds and Paul Hindemith, and a piece by John Mackey, “Breakdown Tango,” written specially for Antares.

The day before the concert, quartet members will conduct a composer workshop session at 3:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall and a master class at 7 p.m. in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. Both of these events are free and open to the public.

Named after the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation and one of the most luminous stars in the night sky, Antares is the winner of awards for “adventurous programming” from ASCAP/CMA (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers/Chamber Music America) in 1999 and 2004, as well as First Prize in the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. The playing of quartet members Rebecca Patterson, cello; Garrick Zoeter, clarinet; Jesse Mills, violin; and Huebner, piano, has been described as “striking” and “powerful” by The Chicago Tribune; The San Diego Reader called them “nuanced and captivating.”

The group’s versatility allows it to create programs that present the chamber masterworks of the Classical and Romantic eras alongside some of the most evocative and exciting music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Antares has completed residencies at a variety of universities, including Columbia, Wesleyan, Aspen School of Music and the University of California-San Diego, among others. The quartet also has performed at numerous festivals, including the Bayview Music Festival, the Huntington Summer Arts series, the Chautauqua Institution and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

Advance tickets for Antares are $12 for the general public; $9 for UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for students. At the door, tickets are $20, $15 and $8. Tickets can be purchased at the Slee Hall box office, at the Center for the Arts box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.