ICE celebrates Milton Babbitt’s centennial with style!  

The music of pioneering composer Babbitt (1916-2011) reflected a restless postwar America in constant creative flux. His infamous 1958 article for High Fidelity Magazine, “Who Cares if You Listen”--which he intended to title “The Composer as Specialist” before editors interceded without his knowledge--is cited as the epitome of sterile academicism in modern music. Yet a closer look at his output reveals an innovative voice who balanced his fascination with mathematical structures with a blend of lyricism, playfulness, and deep expressivity. A student of jazz clarinet in his youth, Babbitt nurtured a love of big band jazz and American popular song, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the hits of Tin Pan Alley.

Soli e Duettini (1991) for flute and guitar
Phenomena (1969) for soprano and tape
Composition for Guitar (1984)
Vision and Prayer (1961) for voice and tape
Four Cavalier Settings (1993) for tenor and guitar 

Peter Tantsits, tenor

Dan Lippel, guitar

Alice Teyssier, flute and soprano