Purdue News
January 17, 1996
The performance, entitled "Bestiary," is a humorous musical theater piece that uses the band as singers and mimes as well as instrumentalists. The text of "Bestiary," written and composed by Schickele, is from the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The music is a mixture of styles from the Renaissance and Middle Ages to refined blues. Schickele will narrate the performance.
Schickele, host of the Public Radio International show "Schickele Mix," is best known for creating P.D.Q Bach, the fictitious son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He also has won four Grammy awards and created music for several feature films and the Broadway musical "Oh, Calcutta." The New York Times says Schickele's work "has given him a leading role in the ever-prominent school of American composers who unselfconsciously blend all levels of American music."
Calliope, together since 1975, is a winner of the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The Washington Post says: "Calliope more than lives up to its name, which means beautiful-voiced. As performers on more than 40 different instruments, they are Renaissance musicians in every sense of the word." The early instruments used in "Bestiary" include the forerunners of the modern oboe, violin, woodwind and percussion instruments.
Tickets are $15 for the public and $10 for Purdue students at campus box offices and Ticketmaster. Charge by telephone at (765) 494-3933 or 800-914-SHOW.
CONTACT: Jeff Langford, Convocations publicist, (765) 494-5045; e-mail, jilangford@convos.purdue.edu
jmw/artsround/9701f24
Compiled by: J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; e-mail, mike_willis@purdue.edu