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North American New Music Festival Archive
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The North American New Music Festival was founded in 1983 by Yvar Mikhashoff and Jan Williams, faculty members of the University at Buffalo Music Department and dedicated proponents of contemporary and avant-garde art music. Their aim was to produce, over a ten-day period, a concentrated series of concerts and related events at multiple Buffalo-area locations. These annual music festivals featured a wide range of modern musical styles composed and performed both by emerging creative musicians and by established composers of national and international reputation.
The Festivals were held in March or April in the years between 1983 and 1992, in October of 1993, in February of 1995, and in April of 1996, with events occurring in more than a dozen locations, including concert halls, art galleries, churches, theaters, and cabarets. The works of more than 300 composers were presented, including many world premieres.
The Festivals were funded primarily through grants from a variety of sources, including the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet The Composer, Inc.
Festival co-founder Yvar Mikhashoff was a widely-respected world-class pianist and concert producer, charismatic in his ability to attract participation and support. After his untimely death in 1993, a one-year hiatus in the course of the Festivals occurred. The absence of his personal leadership and that of Jan Williams, who retired from the Music Department in 1996, together with an austere funding climate, resulted in the eventual demise of the Festival. The final two Festivals were produced by the University's newly-opened Center for the Arts, under the direction of Robert Chumbley.
| Jan. 2003
Music Library Staff musique@acsu.buffalo.edu http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/music/spcoll/nanmf/histornote.html |
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