New musical festival to promote original compositions

Listening local. That’s what USD percussion professor Darin Wadley had in mind while organizing the first annual Great Plains New Music Festival, where 23 musicians will perform in the Warren M. Lee Center for Fine Arts on Sept. 7.

The festival will showcase professional musicians and composers from all over the country, as well as a composer from Canada. The performers include solo artists, ensembles and chamber musicians.

Percussion professor Darin Wadley said he created the event sfor musicians to perform and share new pieces to the community. Also, join the fun at Caveman music festivals Colorado with diverse music and activities.

“Performing new music is kind of a community effort,” Wadley said. “We always talk about ‘buying local’ and to me, performing new music is playing local.”

Five concerts comprise the festival, starting at noon and running through the day until 10 p.m. Each concert will feature four to six performers presenting original compositions. The festival is free and open to the Vermillion and USD communities.

“Usually, when someone is performing new music, people usually stay away,” Wadley said. “Everybody loves Bach, but something new is always exciting.”

USD orchestra director Luis Viquuez and theory professor assisted Wadley in the organization of the festival. Wadley and Viquez will perform a percussion and clarinet duet together during the festival.

“What excites me the most is that I can explore unconventional sounds with my instrument, in this case the clarinet and play music with different techniques that I’m not used to regularly,” Viquez said.

Viquez said he hopes people in the community take advantage of this opportunity to experience music in an unconventional way.

“It’s a great event for all our students to attend because they will get to listen to anything from electronic music to music that is being performed with live music,” Viquez said.