Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Music Ensemble Performs Music of Kenneth Hesketh and John Casken

On April 30th, the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Music Ensemble performs Kenneth Hesketh's Threats and Declamations and John Casken's Infanta Marina at the Kresge Recital Hall in Pittsburgh, PA. Written during his residency as the Contemporary Music Fellow at Kettle's Yard at Cambridge, Threats and Declamations is a recent ensemble work by Hesketh, scored for clarinet, horn, piano, viola, and cello. It premiered in 2005 at Kettle's Yard, performed by the New Music Players ensemble.

Casken's Infanta Marina is also scored for small ensemble with winds. Commissioned by the Nash ensemble, it premiered in 1994 in London. Meredith Oakes of The Independent writes of the performance:

John Casken's Infanta Marina, sparked by a Wallace Stevens' poem about a young woman walking on the shore [was] poised, astringent, whittled in cool grey-blues. It placed a cor anglais between two trios of clarinet-horn-double-bass and flute-viola-harp. These scoured and pounced attractively around the central line.

Kenneth Hesketh

John Casken

Kenneth Hesketh
Threats and Declamations (2005)
for clarinet, horn, piano, viola and cello
10'

John Casken
Infanta Marina (1993-4, rev. 1997)
fl(afl, pic).cl(bcl)-hn-hp-va.db
16'