All events, with the exception of Concert 5, are free and open to the public. If you need accommodations to participate in this event, please contact Damien Mahiet (info@westfield.org / 607-255-3065) as soon as possible.

Sound Installation: Veils
March 1–8
Johnson Museum

John Luther Adams’s electronic soundscapes Veils (2005) will run continuously for the duration of Environs Messiaen at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. The work is comprised of three separate six-hour tracks—Falling Veil, Crossing Veil, Rising Veil—designed to run simultaneously in different parts of the same space.

Lecture
Thursday, March 5, 4:30 pm
124 Lincoln Hall

To kick off the weekend’s events, acclaimed author and Carnegie Mellon School of Music professor Robert Fallon will give a lecture on“‘Des Provinces de France’: Interpreting Habitat and Landscape in Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux.”

Concert 1: “Immeasurable Space”
Thursday, March 5, 8:00 pm
Sage Chapel

Guest performers Geneviève Grenier and Marilyn Nonken and Cornell graduate students Matthew Hall and Jonathan Schakel perform works by Olivier Messiaen and André Jolivet for organ and ondes Martenot, and John Luther Adams’s The Immeasurable Space of Tones (1998–2001).

Composers’ Forum
Friday, March 6, 1:25 pm
Barnes Hall Auditorium

NYU professor and pianist Marilyn Nonken will speak about the use of the piano by French spectralist composers and other composers influenced by spectralism.

Movie Screening: Wavemakers
Friday, March 6, 4:00 pm
B21 Lincoln Hall

Caroline Martel’s award-winning documentary recounts the history of the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument widely featured in popular and classical music, from Hollywood to Olivier Messiaen to Radiohead.

Concert 2: Ensemble X
Friday, March 6, 8:00 pm
Sage Chapel

Ensemble X performs music by composers influenced by Messiaen, including Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child (1980) for soprano and orchestra and Gerard Grisey’s Prologue (1976) for viola and electronics.

Lectures & Panel Discussion
Saturday, March 7, 10:00 am
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Christopher Dingle (Birmingham Conservatoire, UK) and David Gable (Clark Atlanta University) give talks on Messiaen and Boulez before a panel discussion on music and nature in the avant-garde.

Concert 3: Catalogue d’oiseaux
Saturday, March 7, 2:00 pm
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Pianists Xak Bjerken, David Friend, Mari Kawamura, Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, and Andrew Zhou perform Messiaen’s Catalogue d'oiseaux (1956–1958), 13 imaginative works built on bird songs from across France, with introductions by Cornell Professor Ronald R. Hoy.

Concert 4: songbirdsongs
Sunday, March 8, 12:30 pm
CORNELL PLANTATIONS

John Luther Adams’s songbirdsongs for piccolos and percussion (1974–1980) is a sensitive rendering of bird songs featuring species native to North America. This performance will take place outdoors. Space is limited: register here today!

Lecture Session 3
Sunday, March 8, 7:00 PM
Barnes Hall Auditorium

David Gable, Assistant Professor of Music at Clark Atlanta University, speaks about Boulez's Visage nuptial.

Concert 5: Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich
Sunday, March 8, 8:00 pm
Barnes Hall Auditorium

The Cornell Concert Series presents pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich in a program featuring Olivier Messiaen’s Visions de l'Amen and Pierre Boulez’s Structures II. Click here to purchase tickets.

Master Class
Monday, March 9, 10:00 am
Barnes Hall Auditorium

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will give a master class on Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux, featuring performances by candidates of Cornell’s graduate program in contemporary performance practice and keyboard studies.