"There are no two points so distant from one another that they cannot be connected by a single straight line -- and an infinite number of curves."
Composer Lawrence Dillon has produced an extensive body of work, from brief solo pieces to a full-length opera. Three disks of his music are due out in 2010 on the Bridge, Albany and Naxos labels. In the past year, he has had commissions from the Emerson String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, the Daedalus String Quartet, the Kenan Institute for the Arts, the University of Utah and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra.
Although he lost 50% of his hearing in a childhood illness, Dillon began composing as soon as he started piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, and was shortly thereafter appointed to the Juilliard faculty. Dillon is now Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has served as Music Director of the Contemporary Ensemble, Assistant Dean of Performance, and Interim Dean of the School of Music. He was the Featured American Composer in the February 2006 issue of Chamber Music magazine.
Incredibly frustrating, 140 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after Rosa Parks's arrest, to see that so much ground remains to be gained in the fight for equality between races.
On Thursday, the Open Dream Ensemble performed for elementary school children in the 1300-seat Stevens Center. Admission was $5 a seat for the schools that could afford it, but the schools that didn’t have the funding to pay the price of admission got in free.
Because of the way our society works, or doesn’t work, most of the kids from these underfunded schools were African-American.
And shame on anyone who points fingers at them for bringing their troubles upon themselves. These kids, in sharp contrast to the kids who came from the better funded schools, showed up dressed to the hilt: jackets and ties for the boys, Sunday-best dresses for the girls. They couldn’t have been happier to be there, or more respectful and appreciative of the setting and the performers.
But the best thing to see is how these kids came with no artistic prejudices attached. Modern dance? Fantastic. Noise-music? Sounds cool. Surrealistic theater? Makes perfect sense.
The needs are the same for all kids. We’ve got to find a better ways to equalize the opportunities.
posted by Lawrence Dillon
6:56 AM
