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John Cage was one of America's unique composers and musical thinkers.

SUNY Fredonia faculty and students will come together on the stage of Rosch Recital Hall to celebrate the 100th birthday of John Cage, one of America’s most unique composers and musical thinkers.

Professors Rob Deemer and Sean Doyle and Graduate Student Robin Morace welcome all to a free concert featuring three unique styles of Cage’s work. The celebration will take place Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.

The works represented will cover a wide range of Cage's experiments, not only in music, but also in sound. Mr. Morace, a pianist, will perform “In a Landscape” (1948) which, contrary to most of Cage’s works from that period, does not use a “prepared piano” (where bolts, erasers, and other items are inserted between the piano strings to create a different sound world).

Next, Head of Composition Rob Deemer and Theory/Composition Professor Sean Doyle will recite “45' for a Speaker” (1954), a work in which the speaker(s) reads a blend of several lectures that Cage, who passed away in 1992, presented over the years. The “score” of the piece dictates how fast the text is to be read and how long the spaces are between readings, as well as describing how loud or soft the text is to be read.

Finally, six to eight performers will execute Cage's “Radio Music” (1954), one of his experimentations using electronics and “chance” philosophies.

“The biggest challenge we’re facing at this point,” Dr. Deemer says, “is finding eight analog radios that will allow the user to gradually dial to and from a particular station with white noise in between. So many radios today are digital that Cage’s piece may soon be impossible to hear in its original format.”

Come celebrate this master thinker through his music and ideas with SUNY Fredonia’s faculty and students. To learn more, please contact Deemer at deemer@fredonia.edu.