The Music Program of the Department of Performing and Creative Arts presents faculty pianist Sylvia Kahan in a program of piano music by the French composers known as “Les Six.” The recital takes place in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall (Building 1P, Room 120) on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 3:00pm and is presented free of charge.
The program celebrates the centenary of the French composers known as the “Groupe des Six,” whose notoriety began in 1920: Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre. This group of young composers who came of age during World War I were influenced by avant-garde composer Erik Satie and were promoted and publicized by poet and critic Jean Cocteau. During the exuberant post-War period, a new generation of musicians and artists drew their inspiration from everyday objects and events, from the factory and the workplace, from the cinema, the circus, and the cafés.
Rarely heard in concert, the piano works on the program reflect the youth and ebullience of their composers and herald the beginning of an era of shifting artistic trends, including surrealism, Dada, and neo-Classicism.
Come share in the celebration.
By the Division of Academic Affairs
