BRENDAN KINSELLA (ESTADOS UNIDOS) – University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley
"Evil Nigger": programming Julius Eastman
Living homeless on the streets of New York City, dying as a drug addict, and largely forgotten by history – few other composers have shared a fate as tragic as Julius Eastman’s, whose incendiary works as well as his visceral reimagination of Minimalism should earn him a rightful place on modern concert programs. While Eastman seemed bound for success in the 1970s
through his forward-looking compositions and engagements with the likes of Pierre Boulez, Meredith Monk, and John Cage, his success was stymied by substance abuse and a lack of widespread recognition from the stablishment. His identity as a gay African-American composer featured heavily into his compositions both in the provocative titles he selected for
his compositions as well as his incorporation of jazz and popular music into his unique idiom. This lecture session will first present an overview of Eastman’s output for solo piano and chamber ensembles as well as discussing the significant challenges of realizing his scores, many of which are in manuscript and written in aleatoric notation. Then, a broader iscussion of how his full-frontal oeuvre fits into the ongoing social upheaval in modern society in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and its associated tragedies presents Eastman as a composer whose complicated works are as relevant to society today as they were when he first composed them. Finally, this session will conclude with a group performance of his work “Evil Nigger” for multiple pianos with festival participants.
