Renowned organist to kick off UA music season

The University of Arizona School of Music will presents its first Faculty Artist Series concert of the season Sunday, Sept. 7 at 2:30 p.m. at Holsclaw Hall, UA School of Music building, southeast corner of Park and Speedway in Tucson, featuring organist and composer Pamela Decker.

The concert is free and open to the public.

The program will include works by Decker, Matthew Whitehouse, George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen, and a world premi�re by Angela Kraft Cross.

The pieces spotlighted in the first half of the program were all composed within the last eleven months.

Decker’s “El Tigre” is an evocation of the spirit and physicality of a tiger. Angela Kraft Cross’s work “Homage to Henri Nouwen,” as the title implies, is a tribute to theologian Henri Nouwen; in her musical materials the composer translates Nouwen’s words on human fear and love into a powerful musical statement. Matthew Whitehouse’s “Nebulae” is a musical journey through the stages of star formation, a complex process still not completely understood by astronomers--and thus a process that leaves room for both programmatic representation and an element of mystery.

On the second part of the program, George Crumb’s “Pastoral Drone” is a powerful, bold monument to what he calls an “ancient open-air music.” The effect is of a chorus of bagpipes heralding an ancient ceremony.

The Messiaen grouping comprises the final four movements of “La Nativit/ du Seigneur,” a suite evoking the moods and events surrounding Christ’s birth. This suite is one of Olivier Messiaen’s towering achievements as a composer: a work that beautifully fulfills both programmatic and absolute musical objectives.

Organist and composer Pamela Decker earned her doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stanford University and was awarded a Fulbright grant in 1980 to study organ and composition in Luebeck, Germany.

She has won prizes in national and international competitions for organ and composition.

Decker has performed extensively as a concert organist throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.