Tcherepnin To Present Concert on Sunday at Fogg

Ivan Tcherepnin, composer and director of the Harvard Electronic Music Studio, will present a concert, "Pictures at an Exhibition III: The Mediated Object" on Sunday, April 14, at 5:30 p.m. at the Fogg Art Museum. The concert is presented in conjunction with the exhibition "The Mediated Object: Selections from the Eli Broad Collections" on view at the Fogg through Nov. 3.

The 1995-96 Concert Series at the Art Museums features musical programs designed to complement special exhibitions. The concert series is made possible by a grant from the Island Fund. "The Mediated Object: Selections from the Eli Broad Collections" will be open one half-hour before and after the concert. Concert admission is $5; $4 students. Tickets may be purchased at the door one-half hour before the concert begins. Complimentary parking is available at the Broadway Garage, located on Felton Street between Cambridge Street and Broadway.

"Pictures at an Exhibition III: The Mediated Object" is the third in a series of works created by Tcherepnin to explore and illustrate selected works of art through sound. The presentation will consist of a musical performance and sonic environments. Among the musical works to be performed will be The Creative Act (based on a text by Marcel Duchamp) for vocalist, electronic guitar, and percussion with electronics, and The New Consonance for string octet. The sonic environments will be created principally by the Serge Modular music synthesizer. Tcherepnin will be assisted by numerous artists and members of his composition class in analog electronic music.

The series "Pictures at an Exhibition" draws its inspiration in part from its namesake by Mussorgsky, and also from Wassily Kandinsky's concept of a "fundamental internal sound" present in a pictorial composition. Tcherepnin said, "Hopefully, the works presented will amplify and resonate with the 'interior sounds' of the works in the exhibition."

Tcherepnin completed his studies at Harvard, where his principal teacher was Leon Kirchner. A pianist as well as a performer on psaltery, santur, and synthesizer, Tcherepnin has performed, conducted, and lectured on four continents. Tcherepnin has been a resident composer at Marlboro, Bellagio, Dartington, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Korsholm Festival (Finland). His works have received awards from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Jerome Foundation.

In 1982, his performance Santur Opera obtained the Grand Prize of the Arts Electronica Festival in Linz. Commissions have included The Creative Act, for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Concerto for Two Continents, which he recorded in 1994 with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, and And So It Came to Pass, and oratorio commissioned in 1991 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ontario Music Society at Carnegie Hall. Two new works were presented in 1995: Double Concerto for Lynn Chang and Yo Yo Ma, commissioned by the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Commanday, and Pictures at an Exhibition: "Sin Fronteras," composed and performed for an exhibition of artist Ivonne A-Baki's paintings in Quito, Ecuador. (A-Baki is currently artist-in-residence at Dudley House.) In 1993, Tcherepnin and his electronic music class presented a program at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum to "Musify" an exhibition of paintings by Serra, DeKooning, and Johns lent to Harvard in honor of Neil L. and Angelica Zander Rudenstine.

The special exhibition "The Mediated Object: Selections from the Eli Broad Collections" provides a rare opportunity for the Art Museums' audience to view works from these renowned collections of contemporary art which come to Harvard from Santa Monica, Calif. Artists represented include Richard Artschwager, Scott Burton, Saint Clair Cemin, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Annette Lemieux, Sherrie Levine, Glenn Ligon, Cady Noland, and Robert Therrien. "The Mediated Object: Selections from the Eli Broad Collections" was conceived by Jessica Morgan while she was a curatorial intern in contemporary art at the Fogg Art Museum.

This internship was funded by a grant from the Eli Broad Family Foundation in support of the University Art Museums and their commitment to curatorial training. Jessica Morgan is now an assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.