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'Bandanna' To Be Performed At Unlv

04/02/2000

One of the most sought-after and versatile American composers of his generation, Daron Hagen, will appear at UNLV on Feb. 29. 2000. Hagen will conduct the world premiere concert version and cast recording of his opera "Bandanna." Featured in the performance will be the University of Nevada Las Vegas Opera Theatre, Wind Orchestra and the Opera Chorus and University Singers with soloists Paul Kreider, Mark Thomsen and Alfonse Anderson of the UNLV Faculty, and also New York artists James Demier and Darynn Zimmer.

Hagen, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 4, 1961 and has resided in New York City since 1984. The Philadelphia Orchestra premiered his "Prayer for Peace"(1981) when he was nineteen. The New York Philharmonic premiered his "Philharmonia"(commissioned for the orchestra's 150 anniversary in 1992) at Avery Fisher Hall when he was twenty-nine and international popular and critical acclaim greeted the 1993 world premiere of his opera about Frank Lloyd Wright, "Shining Brow" by the Madison Opera, when he was thirty-one. "Bandanna" and "Shining Brow" librettist Paul Muldoon is highly published and heads the Creative Writing program at Princeton University.

Hagen has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy (1993) the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition(1990) the Camago Foundation--a Residence in France (1989),the Atlantic Center for the Arts(1988, Texas Opera Theatre(1986, Juilliard(1985) Tanglewood(1985), as well as multiple residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has won numerous competitions including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Competition--2nd Prize for "Common Ground(1990) the ASCAP-Nissim Prize for Orchestral Music for "Fresh Ayre" (1988), the Bearns Prize for Chamber Music from Columbia University for "Trio Concertante" (1985), the Barlow International Composition Prize for Chamber Music for "J'entends (1985) and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983)

Bandanna, set in a 1968 Texas border town is the story of the chief of Police, Miguel Morales, and two officers who have served with him there and in Vietnam. There's Jake who is resentful of Cassidy's advancement of him, and who is playing a dangerous game double-role playing as policeman and guide to successive groups of immigrant workers. With encouragement from the shady union leader Kane, Jake determines to convince Morales that his wife, Mona, is having an affair with Cassidy. Conceived as both an opera and a musical." Bandanna" is a brilliant revisiting of the great themes of fate and sexual infatuation.

"Bandanna" is the first-ever opera commissioned (College Band Director's National Association) and scored for Wind Orchestra. Reviews of "Bandanna:" "Hagen's masterful score captures the rage, intrigue, and tender resignation of the tale."--Jerry Young, Austin American Statesman and also, "You will find Bandanna's weave most intricate"--Andrew Osborn, Boston Review, April-May, 1999.

UNLV's performance of "Bandanna" will be held in Artemus Ham Concert Hall on February 29, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.00 for general admission and $3.00 for seniors and military. Tickets are free to students. After the performance you will get a chance to meet the composer and artists at a reception in the lobby of Ham Hall.

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