The Glenn Korff School of Music will be hosting the Robert Owens Centenary Festival Sept. 17-19 in Westbrook Music Building.
The festival is being organized by Jamie Reimer Seaman, the Richard H. Larson Distinguished Professor of Music (Voice), and will celebrate the life and legacy of this influential African American composer.
“From the onset of my research, my mission has been to share Owens’ music,” Reimer Seaman said. “With the discovery of so many unpublished manuscripts in the archives, it made perfect sense to share them in honor of his 100th birthday.”
The three-day event will feature concerts of Owens’ music, lectures on his selected poets, discussions on historical events, and a tour of the Robert Owens Archive, which resides in the Music Library in Westbrook Music Building. The archive includes published works, concert programs and reviews, photographs and other memorabilia she received from Owens.
“We are privileged to have some world-renowned musicians joining us for the festival, several of whom were friends of Robert’s, including Donnie Ray Albert (La Scala, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago), Grammy Award-winning baritone Kenneth Overton and Marcia Porter (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Spoleto Festival),” Reimer Seaman said. “UNL Opera is premiering a new chamber orchestra arrangement of Owens’ opera ‘Culture! Culture!’, and there are two entire recitals dedicated to unpublished songs and arias found in the Robert Owens Archive.”
Reimer Seaman is excited to host the conference in the new music building.
“I am so excited to share the new music building as part of the Owens Festival,” she said. “Robert visited campus several times, and I am sure he would be so proud to know that his music is part of celebrating the new home of our school.”
Reimer Seaman has been researching and performing Owens’ works since 2007. In August 2015, Reimer Seaman and the Glenn Korff School of Music presented the North American premiere of Owens’ opera titled “Culture! Culture!” He wrote the opera in Hamburg, Germany, in 1961 and premiered it in Ulm, Germany, in 1970.
Owens traveled to Lincoln in March 2015 to work with students and faculty on his music but was unable to make a return trip to see the opera performance that August. He died on Jan. 5, 2017. The Robert Owens Archive was donated by Reimer Seaman in 2017.
Owens was born in the U.S. in 1925 and grew up in California. His mother, Alpharetta Helm-Owens, was a pianist, and Owens began playing the piano himself at age four, composing at age eight and performing publicly at age 10. After serving in the military, he continued his musical studies in Paris at L’Ecole Normale de Musique under renowned pianist Alfred Cortot.
After teaching in the U.S. for two years, he returned to Europe to live and work in Germany, where he was a composer, pianist and stage actor.
All festival events are free and open to the public, though advanced registration is requested. Registration is due by Aug. 15. Visit https://go.unl.edu/owensfestival for registration and a schedule of events.