Musical program honoring Dr.

January 16, 1978

A musical program honoring composer Dr. Ernst Krenek and his gift of his personal papers establishing the UC San Diego Contemporary Music Archive will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, in the Mandeville Recital Hall at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. John L. Stewart, provost of Muir College and professor of literature, who was instrumental in persuading Krenek to entrust his papers to the university, will begin the ceremony by introducing Chancellor William D. McElroy who will accept the papers on behalf of the university. John R. Haak, associate university librarian, and , composer and professor of music, will also take part.

Speaker for the event will be Dr. of the Wiener Stadtbibliothek, the other chief repository for Krenek's papers. (Some papers are placed in the Library of Congress.) Hilmar, who presides over the library's music collection, is an authority on the lives and music of the "Second Vienna School" to which Krenek belonged and whose other principal members included Arnold Schonberg, and .

Hilmar has been named second honorary chairman of the new UC San Diego Contemporary Music Archive Committee. Krenek serves as chairman and Mrs. Georgina S Peyton, director of the Department of Special Collections of the university library, is executive secretary of the committee.

The ceremony will be followed by a brief concert of Krenek's music in which the composer will perform. Pieces to be performed are: "Flute Piece in Nine Phases" with Bernhard Batschelet on flute and Krenek on piano; "Spatlese," a for voice and piano, with vocalist Michael Ingham and pianist Caroline Horn, and "Von Vorn Herein" for chamber ensemble with Sonor, a contemporary music ensemble conducted by Bernard Rands, composer and professor of music.

Krenek, born in Vienna, , August 23, 1900, has been called by a colleague the "Picasso of music." He is hailed for his contributions to a dizzying array of musical media -- , symphony, chamber works, magnetic tape and the multiplicity of new weddings of technique made possible by the pioneering efforts, his own as well as others', into computer-assisted composition.

The papers Krenek is placing on deposit in the Department of Special Collections include sketches and manuscripts of , symphonies, chamber music, piano and vocal music and letters from many of the eminent , conductors, singers and performers of the 20th century.

Krenek, author of many books and articles about his art and the role of the artist, has written, "The artist's place is the watchtower of civilization, where he looks far out over past and present to the horizon beyond which the future is looming. To his vision he gives tangible, visual, audible shape through the symbols provided by his art."

The composer attended school at the University of Vienna, State Academy of Music in Vienna and the State Academy of Music in Berlin. He was advisor to the director of the State Opera House in Kassel, Germany, from 1925 to 1927. In 1937 he came to the United States as director of the Monteverdi Opera. Two years later he became professor of music at Vassar College. From 1942 to 1947 he was the dean of fine arts at Hamline University, St. Paul.

Krenek's most renowned opera, "," had its first performance just before the Nazi onslaught. His jazz- influenced opera "" created a sensation at its debut in Vienna and inspired countless serious students of music who had previously spurned the jazz idiom.

Krenek was named an honorary fellow of UC San Diego's John Muir College in 1967 and participated in the inaugural convocation ceremonies of the college in January 1970. On that occasion his "An Instant Remembered" was performed. He was commissioned earlier by an anonymous donor to compose a special piece for the college. "Exercises of a Late Hour" for a large instrumental ensemble and tape was performed for the first time in 1968.

Krenek now lives in Palm Springs but is a frequent visitor to UC San Diego's Department of Music and its Center for Music Experiment, where he works with young musicians and composers-in-residence.

For information contact: John Muir College Provost's Office, 452-3582 OR Public Information Office, 452-3120

(January 16, 1978)