WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY TO CELEBRATE WORKS OF COMPOSER PAUL HINDEMITH ON APRIL 12 AND 13
—"Hindemithon" to feature performance by jazz artist Willie Ruff

A two-day festival designed to celebrate the life and works of the German composer Paul Hindemith will be held at William Paterson University in Wayne on April 12 and 13 from 3 to 10 p.m. each day in Shea Center room 101. Admission is free.

The festival, titled "Hindemithon," will include lectures, discussions, films and workshops exploring Hindemith’s musical ideas and contributions to American culture. William Paterson University faculty, students, alumni and guest artists will perform a wide selection of his works, including his rarely heard "Ludus Tonalis," which will be performed by pianist Frank Pavese, and his children’s musical, "Let’s Build a Town."

Willie Ruff, a jazz musician and professor of music at Yale University who studied under Hindemith, will give two lectures on April 12. One lecture will examine Hindemith’s influence on jazz great Charlie Parker; the second will focus on Hindemith’s devotion to the work of the German scientist Johannes Kepler.

Hindemith, who was born in 1895, was a leading exponent of the neoclassic movement. Considered a musical radical as a young man, from the mid-1920s onward he was acknowledged both as one of the key modernist composers of the 20th century and as a teacher and theorist whose influence on younger musicians was unmatched. In his middle years, he rejected atonalism --the form of musical modernism associated with Arnold Schoenberg -- and later criticized non-tonal music. By the time of Hindemith's death in 1963, performances of his music were far less common than they had been even in the 1950s.
For additional information, contact Frank Pavese, artistic director of the event, at 973-720-3800, x1077.

For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966

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4/07/03