EN
FRDebra Richtmeyer Performance
Website(s) : http://illinoissaxophonestudio.com / http://music.illinois.edu/faculty/debra-richtmeyer
“Indian Hedgehog” (world premiere), by S.A. Taylor, belongs to a series of pieces that aspire to sonify DNA. It is modeled on the protein Indian Hedgehog, which plays a role in fetal developpement.
Biography
Debra Richtmeyer, Professor of Saxophone at the University of Illinois since 1991, has performed around the world and is a recipient of numerous awards including “Honorary Lifetime Member” of the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA), the University of Illinois’ Campus Award for “Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching” and a two-time Grammy List nominee. She has recorded numerous CDs, adjudicated state, national and international competitions, and premiered compositions at seven World Saxophone Congresses. Her students have won numerous national and international prizes and are teaching and performing in the United States, Europe and Asia. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, Past President of NASA, and a Conn-Selmer Artist. (See illinoissaxophonestudio.com.)
More information
“Indian Hedgehog” for alto saxophone and electronics belongs to a series of pieces that aspire to make 21st-century “program music” that sonifies DNA and genetic data. The protein Indian hedgehog helps to tell our limbs and digits where they should go as we develop in the womb. In this piece you can hear its DNA sequence played in the electronic percussion, while the saxophone soloist plays melodies and canons modeled on the spiraling alpha helixes and driving beta sheets that form the protein. The piece is in two movements: Hedge and Hog.
Stephen Andrew Taylor composes music that explores boundaries between art and science. His first orchestra commission, Unapproachable Light, inspired by images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Testament, was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 1996 in Carnegie Hall. Recent works include Paradises Lost, a science-fiction opera based on a novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, conducted by the composer in Toronto in 2013. He is Professor of Composition at the University of Illinois and his music has won awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation.