His 90th birthday anniversary triggers the celebrations of the late Andrew Imbrie and his music. On Friday, March 25, Composers Inc. kicks off the series with a promising program featuring new works written to honor his memory by former students David del Tredici, Richard Festinger, and Hi Kyung Kim, and another new piece in Imbrie’s honor by his distinguished colleague and friend Yehudi Wyner.
The program at San Francisco’s Old First Church at 7:30 p.m. also offers three pieces from Imbrie’s final years. For his Duet for Two Friends, these will be the illustrious cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau and John Sackett on bass clarinet. They’ll also play Kim’s Two Years With the Seine and be joined by two violinists and a violist for movements of the Clarinet Quintet, his last and unfinished work. Fonteneau will play Imbrie’s Melody of Gayageum, the Korean instrument that attracted him on his visits to Korea.
During his 44 years on the UC Berkeley music faculty, Imbrie inspired students through his teaching and his own compositions, and they produced some of the best music to come out of this area. The commemoration of that continues April 6 on the free Noon Concert series at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall with the performance of Imbrie’s Violin Concerto, with Ariana Kim as soloist and David Milnes conducting the University Symphony Orchestra.
Next, on April 8, the Borromeo String Quartet plays at the UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall and then again on a larger concert on April 9 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Featured will be the Borromeo playing Imbrie’s String Quartet No. 5 and Nicole Paiement’s New Music Ensemble playing his compositions From Time to Time, Chicago Bells, and Serenade.
The next afternoon, April 10, there will be a Symposium on Music of Andrew Imbrie with musicologists Joseph Kerman and Daniel Heartz, plus composers Olly Wilson, Fred Lerdahl, Richard Festinger, and David Hoose; tickets are free and the public is welcome, in 125 Morrison Music Hall on the Berkeley campus. That will be followed the same day at 3 p.m. by the final concert of the series, also free, given by UC Berkeley’s Eco Ensemble together with members of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota playing Imbrie’s Piano Quartet, Spring Fever, and Sextet for Six Friends, and with a new work composed in Imbrie’s memory by Cindy Cox.
Meanwhile, throughout the festival, next door to Morrison Hall in the Hargrove Music Library, a new permanent collection of Imbrie’s scores, manuscripts, and archival material will be on display.