The University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Music Department gives regional composers a chance showcase and premier their works tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall. ULM Composition Professor Mel Mobley says this will be a joint composition recital featuring his works and two pieces by acclaimed composer Kyle Gullings from Tyler, Texas.
Gullings has received many awards for his compositions including the prestigious National Opera Association’s “Chamber Opera Composition Competition.” He also participated in the Kennedy Center’s “Page to Stage Festival.”
“For us it is very much an organic experience, talking with the performer-to-be and figuring out how best to utilize their traits,” Mobley says. Gullings teaches at the University of Texas at Tyler; like Mobley, he writes with particular performers at the university in mind. Gullings will premiere a new piece for piano entitled “Meditation on the American Dream.”
Several ULM faculty members perform the original works of Gullings and Mobley, including Dr. Richard Seiler, Dr. Scott Humes, Dr. Claire Vangelisti, Dr. James Bolden, and Dr. Mobley himself. Also performing a new work tonight is the performance art group M2 (M Squared). The group features Tina Mullone, Associate Professor of Dance at ULM.
“We realized there were a lot of similarities in how we viewed music and art with percussion and dance,” Mobley explains the group’s origins, “also we realized it was possible for us to integrate each other’s activity into our own.” Their piece “Rise Down” features percussion, electronic audio, and dance.
The concert is free to the public.
