Next week, May 9-12, Bari Conservatory in southern Italy, on the Adriatic, is hosting a totalism festival, titled “Embracing the Universe.” It was organized and is directed by pianist Emanuele Arciuli, who is perhaps Italy’s greatest advocate for recent American music of a more populist bent. (I had announced the festival for last September, but it was postponed.) You may remember totalism. Emanuele and the Conservatory Orchestra will play four of my works – Serenity Meditation, Sang Plato’s Ghost, Earth-Preserving Chant, and excerpts of Transcendental Sonnets, along with music by friends of mine: Bernadette Speach, Mary Jane Leach, and Michael Gordon (see poster below). Bernadette, whose ancestors are from that part of Italy, is finally getting a premiere of her 2001 chorus and orchestra piece Embrace the Universe , and, since it ties in with the idea of totalism, thus the festival’s title. I’m giving a lecture on totalism on the 11th, and since I have to miss a week of teaching anyway, my wife and I are spending the weekends as well. I may eat a lot.
