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UT Percussion Studies and Nief-Norf to host Pulitzer-Prize winning composer, John Luther Adams

johnlutheradams.com

On Monday, April 14th, John Luther Adams was awarded the Pulitzer-Prize in music for his recent orchestral work, Become Ocean.  His music is inspired by, and sometimes performed in, the natural world.  The New Yorker writes that Adams is "one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century."

The UT Percussion department and Nief-Norf organization are hosting Adams for a very special Earth Day performance of his composition, Inuksuit, which will be performed at Ijams Nature Center, Tuesday April 22nd.  Dr. Andrew Bliss, Assistant Professor of Percussion and Nief-Norf's artistic director has organized this unique event and talked with Morning Concert host, Melony Dodson, about the music, what listeners can expect, how it will be performed, and the logistics involved in putting this performance together.

Melony calls the beautiful mountains of Boone, N.C., home, although she was born near Greensboro, N.C. There’s just something about those Blue Ridge Mountains that got in her blood and never left after she moved there to attend Appalachian State University (ASU). While at ASU, she majored in piano performance and music therapy and began to cultivate a love for accompanying and for collaborating with other musicians. This soon led her to earn a master’s degree in collaborative piano at the University of Tennessee, which she attended from 2006-2008.