Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon to visit MSU Denver
A two-day residency and world premiere concert connect students and the community to contemporary classical music.
When audiences attend a classical concert, they rarely get to meet the composer. This month, MSU Denver students and the broader Denver community will have that chance with Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
Higdon will visit MSU Denver for a two-day residency where students will have the opportunity to engage with her, and MSU Denver faculty chamber players will perform Higdon’s chamber music compositions, including the world premiere of her “Horn Trio.” The ticketed performance is open to the public.
“It’s rare that a composer of this stature would be here talking about their music,” said Philip Ficsor, assistant professor in the Music Department at MSU Denver.
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Faculty Chamber Players: World Premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s “Horn Trio”
King Center Recital Hall
Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.
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“Having Higdon here reminds us that, at some point, Beethoven and all the great composers throughout history that we play regularly, were living, breathing human beings. Even with our great composers in the Music Department, it’s easy to lose that perspective.”
A residency like this offers an opportunity for members of the Music Department to come together with the broader community and for student composers to receive mentorship.
“MSU Denver has a really exciting music composition program,” said Patricia Surman, MSU Denver professor of Music and flutist. “So we have a lot of students and faculty members who are living American composers.” This concert, she said, reflects a larger effort to bring composers to campus and was funded in part by a Dean’s Innovation Grant.
The chamber performance of Higdon’s works will include nearly a dozen MSU Denver faculty chamber players and guests, including Surman (flute), Ficsor (violin), and colleagues in winds, brass and piano.
“We’re all committed to the aesthetics of living music that is being created now, and what is most relevant to our students now,” Surman said. “I think this just really resonates with the values of our department as music teachers and creators.”
Higdon’s “Horn Trio” represents a major contribution to the genre of chamber music, often recognized only for Brahms’ iconic opus. For one, horn trios are fairly uncommon. The “trio” here refers to a piece with a violin, piano and French horn. Ficsor said that Brahms’ horn trio, dating back to the 1800s, is the lighthouse by which all other horn trios are measured. “There’s a vocal quality to the horn that I think works very well with the violin,” he said, adding that the effect has a noble quality.
For French horn students, the concert and residency are of special interest. Ficsor said he believes audience members will also find a connection to Higdon’s compositions, which he describes as digestible and relatable.
“You don’t need to have a degree in music to appreciate great music,” Ficsor said. “Great music stands on its own, and there’s an emotional connection to music which goes beyond understanding.”
The opportunity to experience modern classical music in a chamber setting, with the living composer in attendance, is certainly a rare event — but it’s not exclusive.
“All of our faculty at MSU Denver are strong believers that music is for everyone,” Surman said. “One reason to have these living composers come to our campus and interact with our students is so that we can help students, whether it’s music majors or not, really understand that music is for everyone.”
