Birmingham New Music Festival: Around Stravinsky

Septet by Igor Stravinsky is a landmark composition that reflects the shift in his music from neoclassic to serialist. The BAMA Players (clarinetist Brad Whitfield, bassoonist Cameron Bonner, hornist Valerie Sly, violinist Sarah Nordlund Dennis, violist Chris Lowry, cellist Peter Garrett, and pianist Eun-Hee Park) perform Septet and premiere works by Joseph Landers, Mark Lackey, Holland Hopson, Wesley Johnson, and Matthew Scott Phillips that are inspired by Stravinsky’s pivotal work.

The Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) announces the 10th Anniversary Birmingham New Music Festival in seven concerts presenting a wide range of music by Alabama composers including solo piano, four chamber music ensembles, choral music, live electronics, improvised music, and new takes on Appalachian folk music. The festival will take place at Birmingham First United Methodist Church, East Village Arts, Samford University’s Brock Recital Hall, and UAB’s Hulsey Recital Hall. All concerts are free. The festival was implemented in 2014 to further BAMA’s mission of promoting music by Alabama composers and presenting concerts of recently created art music to communities in Birmingham. The 2024 festival honors two composers who died in 2023, Joe L. Alexander and Ed Robertson. Our guest composer is New York City-based Robert Voisey, who founded the 60X60 and Fifteen Minutes of Fame projects.