News release
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publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive

Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 11/16/04
 
Stephen Suber and Kevin CutrerClick on image for publication quality photo 
RECITAL SHOWCASES SOUTHEASTERN COMPOSER – The works of Stephen Suber, composer in residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, left, will be showcased in a recital on Nov. 22 in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium. The program features three world premieres, including "Songs of Touch," a musical setting of poems by Southeastern English major Kevin Cutrer of Kentwood, right. In the background, Suber’s music faculty colleagues Kenneth Boulton, piano, and Richard Schwarz, alto saxophone, rehearse another of his works, “Angels.”
RECITAL TO FEATURE PREMIERES BY SOUTHEASTERN COMPOSER
     HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University faculty and student musicians will join their talents on Nov. 22 for “Suberworks,” a recital showcasing the works of the university’s award-winning composer in residence, Stephen Suber.
     While Suber’s works have been individually premiered and performed throughout his more than two decades at Southeastern, the “all Suber” recital is a first for the composer. 
     “I have been very productive over the last year and a half and wanted to showcase those works,” he said.
     The free 7:30 p.m. concert in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium will feature three world premieres -- "Songs of Touch," the composer’s musical settings of poems by Southeastern student Kevin Cutrer of Kentwood; “Dithyramb,” performed by the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra; and “Thorax,” a work written for the 12 musicians of the Southeastern Trombone Ensemble.
     The program will also include "Fanfare for the Protean Age," which Suber wrote in 2003 as a show piece for the Southeastern Trumpet Ensemble’s prestigious performance at the International Trumpet Guild convention; two 1994 compositions, “Angels” and “Starlit”; “Cat Wars,” composed in 1985 for former student clarinetist Karen Catoire; and “Upon the Bank at Early Dawn” (1971), one of Suber’s earliest works.
     Soloists will include former faculty member Deborah Andrus, clarinet; Southeastern alumnus Cedric Bridges, tenor; faculty members Richard Schwarz, alto saxophone, and Kenneth Boulton and Raisa Voldman, piano. Southeastern students Amanda Tarver, mezzo-soprano, and Simina Renea, viola, will join Voldman in the premiere of the song cycle, "Songs of Touch." 
     “When I began thinking about composing a song cycle, I remembered some poetry by Kevin Cutrer that had impressed me deeply,” Suber said. “Kevin had recently been a student in my music literature course, and he had shared some of his work with me.”
     “Of course I thought it was an excellent idea,” said Cutrer.
     An English major, Cutrer, who will graduate in December, has been published in the “Connecticut Review” and “Hogtown Creek Review.” Southeastern’s Michael Fanning Scholarship funded his participation last summer in the annual Festival of Poetry at the Frost Place, a center for poetry and the arts in poet Robert Frost’s hometown, Franconia, N.H. 
     “More than anyone else, Dr. Suber has seen my writing improve over the past few years,” Cutrer said. “He has seen the roughest drafts I have written as well as some of my best accomplishments, and always has been there to help me through the blocks, to guide me away from the mistakes, and generally to give the support of someone who can relate to the ups and downs of the creative process.” 
     “Songs of Touch” encompasses several short poems, which Cutrer said are united by the theme of touch and how touch communicates a world of emotions and ideas throughout the span of a lifetime. 
     “I first got the idea for this theme from watching a documentary on skin that dealt a lot with tactile communication,” Cutrer said.
     He said he and Suber worked together, but separately, on their collaborative creative project. “ I wrote my poems like I have written all of my other work: from my own experience, through trial and error, draft after draft, alone,” he said. “Dr. Suber retired to his own quarters with my offerings and listened for the notes my words suggested. Along the way we let each other know what we liked and disliked about how the cycle was going, and changed our contributions accordingly.”
     “One often hears horror stories about artists collaborating, but in our case there’s no clash of gigantic egos or unhealthy, overzealous competition, since we’re both providing a crucial piece to the same puzzle,” he added. “What results is an honest team of two individuals willing to serve the art and nothing else.”
     A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Suber received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Principia College in Illinois, Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and Indiana University, respectively. His compositions for a wide variety of media have been heard throughout the United States and Europe, and he received Southeastern’s prestigious President’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity in 1987.
     Suber's “Symphony Of Wind and Light” (1981) was first recognized at the 1982 Indiana State University Orchestral Composition Contest and was performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, it was performed and recorded on the First Edition label by the Louisville Symphony Orchestra under conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith. 
     In 1987, Suber’s “The Descent” premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City and subsequently was recorded by Opus I Records. His “Enchantments: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra,” commissioned by the Louisiana Music Teachers Association, was premiered in 1992 by the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, with pianist David Evenson, head of the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts, as soloist. It was honored by the National Music Teachers Association and released on compact disc with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Gerard Schwarz.
     For additional information about the recital, contact the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts, 985-549-2184.