Works by James Tenney, New Music Composer-in-Residence, to Be Performed Tonight By Linda Shockley
			OCTOBER 15, 1998--"I once asked Jim for a one-word explanation of why he composes music," says John Luther Adams, associate professor of composition. "His answer was: 'Curiosity.' Tenney delights in hearing things he's never heard before, and it's this fascination with new ways of listening that makes his music so challenging and so exhilarating to hear." James Tenney, composer-in-residence, has spent the past week with students in conducting and composition workshops. The completion of his residency will be marked with a concert tonight at 8:00 in the Warner Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. Seven of Tenney's compositions will be performed by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble and Oberlin Wind Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss, associate professor of wind conducting, and guest conducted by James Tenney and Mitch Arnold, visiting assistant professor of conducting. Michael Rosen, professor of percussion, will conduct the Oberlin Percussion Group in Tenney's Three Pieces for Drum Quartet. The other pieces to be performed include: "In a Large Reverberant Space," Sonata for Ten Wind Instruments, Three Indigenous Songs, Chromatic Canon (for two pianos), Septet (for six electric guitars and electric bass), and Diapason (for chamber orchestra). "James Tenney is one of the most original and influential composers of our time," says Adams. " He's a true experimentalist who combines an extraordinarily sensitive ear with the inquiring intellect of a scientist. The result is music that is both rigorous in concept and arresting in sound. "Tenney was a pioneer in computer music, and his works from the early 1960s are widely regarded as classics of the medium. His explorations of the harmonic series in instrumental works of the past three decades have had a profound influence on what has come to be called 'spectral' music."