Baritone Thomas Buckner performs at BGSU Feb. 17

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Baritone Thomas Buckner will perform a concert of works by his longtime collaborator, composer Robert Ashley, on Feb. 17 at Bowling Green State University.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center and is free and open to the public. Buckner’s performance is presented as part of the Music at the Forefront concert series sponsored by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.

For more than 40 years, Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music. He has collaborated with a host of new music composers including Noah Creshevsky, Tom Hamilton, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Leroy Jenkins, Bun Ching Lam, Annea Lockwood, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, Chinary Ung, Christian Wolff and many others. He has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Herbst Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ostrava Days Festival, the Prague Spring Festival and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Buckner has participated in over 40 recordings, including six solo albums: “Full Spectrum Voice” (1991), “Sign of the Times” (1994), “Inner Journey” (1998), “His Tone of Voice” (2001), “Contexts” (2006) and “New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble” (2007). The entire discography features newly commissioned works by an impressive array of composers including Annea Lockwood, Somei Satoh, Alvin Lucier, Muhal Richard Abrams, Tania Leon, Blue Gene Tyranny, and David Behrman, who utilize Buckner’s wide range of musical styles. For the past 20 years, Buckner has also co-produced the Interpretations series in New York City.

Music at the Forefront is an annual concert series featuring performances by accomplished and innovative performers of contemporary music. For more information, contact Kurt Doles at the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at 419-372-2685 or kdoles@bgsu.edu.