Birmingham New Music Festival: In Medias Res

The BAMA Players (violinist Sarah Nordlund Dennis, violist Meredith Treaster, cellist Samuel Nordlund, and pianist Ken Watson) and Vuorovesi Trio (flutist Diane Boyd Schultz, oboist Mary Lindsay Bailey, and clarinetist Osiris J. Molina) present In Medias Res, a concert of acoustic chamber music. On the first set, The BAMA Players perform Brian C. Moon’s La Chose Verte for violin and piano, Tom Reiner’s Piano Quartet No. IV, and Charles Norman Mason’s Tree for piano trio, based on Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory. Then the Vurovesi Trio present Joseph Landers’ Six Pieces for Flute, Oboe, and Clarinet. The final set with the BAMA Players includes a piece from Matthew Scott Phillips’ Sundial series, Sic Praeterit Aetas for piano trio, Michael Coleman’s String Trio no. 1, and “Interlude 1” and “Movement II” from the multi-movement piano trio In Medias Res by William Price.

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.