Monday pick: Facebook Live with Rei Hotoda and composer Robert Morris

The Fresno Philharmonic is really getting into the “tune in at noon” motif. Last week I told you about the world premiere of Robert Morris’ “Landscape Greeting.” On Monday, you can watch a Facebook Live interview with the composer.

Music director Rei Hotoda will interview Morris about the piece, which he wrote on commission for the orchestra. The piece was inspired by the Fresno Art Museum’s exhibition “Gifted,” an impressive collection of California impressionist paintings. (For a virtual tour of the exhibition with me and the museum’s Sarah Vargas, click here.)

Some background on Morris: As a music theorist, Robert Morris’s work has bridged an important gap between the rigorously academic and the highly experimental. Born in Cheltenham, England in 1943, Morris received his musical education at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. Morris has taught composition, electronic music, and music theory at the University of Hawaii and at Yale University, where he was Chairman of the Composition Department and Director of the Yale Electronic Music Studio. He was also Director of the Computer and Electronic Studio, Director of Graduate (music) Studies, and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1980 Morris joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music where he currently teaches as Professor of Composition.

Fun fact: Hotoda is an Eastman School of Music grad. Did she ever take one of Morris’ classes? You’ll have to tune into Facebook Live to find out.

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