Grammy-winning eight blackbird in free concert at Newman Recital Hall

USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC PRESENTS EIGHTH BLACKBIRD AS PART OF SCHOOL'S ONGOING 125th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.

Concert Is Culmination of Week-Long Residency by Renowned Ensemble; Friday, October 16, 2009, 7:30 P.M., at USC's Alfred Newman Recital Hall.

USC Thornton School of Music presents Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird - one of the world's premier new music groups described as "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled" (The New Yorker) - in a week-long residency from October 13 - 16, which culminates with a free concert on Friday, October 16, 2009, 7:30 p.m., at Alfred Newman Recital Hall on the USC campus. The ensemble shows off its phenomenal virtuosity and renowned theatrical flair in a diverse, fun program that highlights the humorous side of some very different composers. New York native Marc Mellits' Spam is a fun, funky homage to the cheap, pre-cooked meat product, while Englishman Thomas Adés depicts a hilarious musical seduction in Catch. Two USC composers meet on this program as well, Stephen Hartke with his Pulitzer Prize-nominated Meanwhile, evoking a bizarre imaginary Asian court theatre, and Donald Crockett with Whistling in the Dark, a work in which "blithe vitality keeps bumping into brooding anxiety" (Los Angeles Times). eighth blackbird also pays homage to the late George Perle with his Critical Moments 2, a work written for the ensemble. Crockett and Hartke and members of eighth blackbird are featured at a pre-concert talk at 7:00 p.m.

Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first served basis. USC's Alfred Newman Recital Hall is located at 3616 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089 (on the USC campus in downtown LA). Ample parking is available. For more information, please call (213) 740-2584

or visit www.usc.edu/music.

Hailed as "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic, and highly skilled" by The New Yorker, eighth blackbird is widely lauded for its unusual performing style - often playing from memory with theatrical flair - and for its efforts to make new music accessible to wider audiences. Since its founding in 1996, the sextet has actively commissioned and recorded new works; recent commissions include a concerto from Jennifer Higdon and pieces from Steve Reich, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Steven Mackey, David Lang, Stephen Hartke, and Bruno Mantovani. The group's CD, strange imaginary animals, won two Grammy Awards in 2008, including one for Best Chamber Music Performance. Kicking off its 2009-10 season, eighth blackbird makes its debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, playing the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Grazioso! In other season highlights, eighth blackbird presents a new version of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, with choreography and direction by Mark DeChiazza. The ensemble performs Slide, a new music-theater piece by Rinde Eckert and Steven Mackey (premiered at the Ojai Music Festival last summer, where the group was collective Music Director) at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and then takes the piece to the ensemble's hometown, Chicago, where the group has its own two-concert series at the Harris Theater. During a season residency at the Curtis Institute of Music, eighth blackbird performs Steve Reich's Pulitzer Prize-winning piece Double Sextet, which was commissioned and premiered by the ensemble and features prominently on its season programming. The ensemble stops in New York City for the Look & Listen Festival and the Peoples' Symphony Concerts, and it makes its Minneapolis debut, performing Double Sextet at the Walker Art Center. In June, eighth blackbird gives the world premiere of a new concerto for sextet and orchestra by Jennifer Higdon, with the Atlanta Symphony. Highlights of past seasons have included performances in South Korea, Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, and at nearly every major chamber music venue in North America. eighth blackbird was honored in 2007 with the American Music Center's Trailblazer Award and a Meet The Composer Award, and the group's numerous competition wins include the Grand Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The sextet has been profiled in The New York Times and featured on CBS News Sunday Morning and Bloomberg TV's Muse. eighth blackbird has recorded for the Cedille and Naxos labels.

The UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FLORA L. THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC, currently celebrating its 125th Anniversary and regarded as one of the premier music schools in the world, offers a unique combination of innovative programs such as popular music performance, recording science, and scoring for motion pictures and television, which stand alongside more traditional programs in classical music, opera, jazz studies, composition and research. Blending the rigors of a traditional conservatory-style education with the benefits of studying at a leading research university, USC Thornton offers students an unparalleled music education in a real-world context. Its illustrious alumni and faculty have been awarded countless Grammy and Academy Awards and serve as leaders in all facets of the music industry. The school's venerated faculty has, over the years included violinist Jascha Heifetz, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, composer Igor Stravinsky, violist William Primrose and atonal pioneer Arnold Schoenberg, among many others. Celebrated alumni include pop great Herb Albert; film score composers James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and James Newton Howard; TV/film score composer Bear McCreary; composer and Presidential Medal of the Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen; acclaimed conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Grant Gershon; opera stars Marilyn Horne, Rod Gilfry, Jessica Rivera and Erica Miller; and esteemed classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. In 1999, philanthropist Flora L. Thornton became the school's benefactor with a naming gift of $25 million, at the time the largest such contribution to an American school of music. USC Thornton is the oldest continuously operating cultural institution in Los Angeles. USC Thornton currently enrolls 1,072 students from 40 countries and has a student-faculty ratio of six to one.

Photo: USC Thornton School of Music continues its 125th Anniversary celebration with a free concert featuring Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird (pictured) on Friday, October 16, 2009, 7:30 p.m., at Alfred Newman Recital Hall on the USC campus.