NATCHITOCHES – Cellist Craig Hultgren will present a recital at Northwestern State University on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. Hultgren will also be providing a master class for NSU cello students on Oct. 18.
The program will include “Orbital Variations for solo cello” by Shawn Crouch, “Beat for cello with electronics” by David Bohn, “Incendiary Rhetoric a politically inspired rant for cello & speaking cellist” by Alan Schmitz, “Improvisation for amplified cello” by Craig Hultgren, “Ce cE ceLLo for cello & sound file” by Joe L. Alexander, “Arguments with Myself for solo cello” by Todd Gabriel and “Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre for cello & fixed media by Charles Norman Mason
Hultgren remains active in new music, the newly creative arts and the avant-garde. Recently leaving Birmingham after more than 30 years as a member of the Alabama Symphony, he now resides outside of Decorah, Iowa as the farmer-cellist. The New York Classical Review commented that he, “…played with impressive poise and sensitivity…” for Dorothy Hindman’s 2016 chamber music retrospective at Carnegie Hall.
Almost 300 works have been created for him. A recipient of two Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, he was a member for many years of Thámyris, a contemporary chamber music ensemble in Atlanta. He is a founding member of Luna Nova, a new music ensemble with a large repertoire of performances available as podcast downloads on iTunes. Hultgren is featured in three solo CD recordings including “The Electro-Acoustic Cello Book on Living Artist Recordings.”
For 10 years, he produced the Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial, an international competition that highlighted the best new compositions for the instrument. He taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Wartburg College (Iowa) and Birmingham-Southern College where he directed the BSC New Music Ensemble. He is a founding member and former President of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance and was on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Birmingham and their Scrollworks program. He is vice president of the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra Board of Directors in Decorah, and he will become chair of the Board of Directors for the Iowa Composers Forum in 2019.
For further information on the recital, call (318) 357 5802.
