Music and art collide as KU students collaborate for interdisciplinary concert

LAWRENCE, KS (11/14/2011)(readMedia)-- Jeremy Wohletz, a KU doctoral student in clarinet performance, wanted to present a unique event for his final School of Music student recital. After months of research and work, the final performance will result in an interdisciplinary concert featuring clarinet, electronic components and video/expanded media.

Wohletz will perform Morton Subotnick's Passages of the Beast on clarinet. Performing with Wohletz will be Professor Kip Haaheim (music composition), who will handle the electronic components of the concert, and Matthew Walsh, a KU expanded media student who will display images that interact with Wohletz's music.

Wohletz wanted the process to be very organic and live, and designed the concert so that Haaheim and Walsh are reacting to and interacting with Wohletz's music, instead of simply performing pre-recorded elements. The result will be a dynamic display of collaboration.

The concert will take place at 5 p.m. Nov. 19 in Swarthout Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

Jeremy Wohletz, a doctoral student studying clarinet performance with Professor Stephanie Zelnick, received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baker University (2005), where he was named music performer of the year 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. He was also appointed principal clarinet in the 2004 Kansas Intercollegiate Band, performed with the National Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performed in the Small Intercollegiate Band at the Lincoln Center in New York. Wohletz received his Master of Music from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (2007), where he won the 2007 Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition and served as principal clarinetists in both the orchestra and wind ensemble. In addition to his doctoral work at KU, he is on the woodwind faculty at Ottawa University, teaches private lessons at Kansas City music stores, and performs regularly with a blues band and Pararo, a clarinet and guitar duo. He attended Basehor-Linwood High School.

Matthew Walsh, an undergraduate student at KU studying expanded media, creates video and performance art that explores the intersection of art, technology, and music. Working with stop-motion, live video and electronic music, Walsh uses specialized software to develop interactive tools for use in performance. As a member of the Band of the Hollow Log art collective, Walsh has been included in several group shows, such as the Jayhawk Gallery in Topeka, Kansas, and Boxcar, in Bloomington, Indiana. He has also been included in two consecutive University of Kansas Scholarship Exhibitions, in 2010 and 2011.

For more information, contact the KU School of Music at 785-864-3436.