MUSIC

Houston Baptist University - School of Music presents a Festival Concert, Friday, February 19 at 7:30pm in the Dunham Theater in the HBU - Morris Cultural Arts Center.

This concert is a choral concert with orchestra, featuring the American premiere of Friedenskantate by Houston composer Ann K. Gebuhr. The cantata was commissioned by the Houston-Leipzig Sister City Association for the dedication of the 'Friedensfenster" at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany (pictured). The world premiere took place there on 11 October 2009 as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Peaceful Revolution.

Ann K. Gebuhr holds the Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, Master of Music in Theory, and Doctor of Philosophy with a major in Music Theory from Indiana University. Her music has been performed throughout the United States and in Europe, including performances by the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Filharmonie George Enescu of Bucharest, Romania, Evergreen Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis and the Waterloo Symphony. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and is the first woman to be awarded the Creative Artist Award in Composition by the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County. Works have been published by the Bassoon Heritage Edition, MMB Music and Thomas House Publications. Bonhoeffer, her second opera, received its world premiere in Houston in May 2000, and a compact disc recording of that premiere was released in November 2000. In 2002 she was awarded a Scholar in Residence Fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation for a month-long residency at the Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. Her symphonic essay Voyage d’Anima was winner of the Louisville Orchestra competition in 2003, and she was named the Texas Commissioned Composer by the Texas Music Teachers Association for 2004-2005. She was also commissioned by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music for Pax Vobiscum, a work for chorus, soloists, organ and bells, premiered in New York City late in the Fall of 2005, and in June 2006 violinist Rodica Weber premiered her Concerto for Violin in Romania. Current projects include Friedenskantate, a cantata for dedication of the 'Friedensfenster' (peace window) in St. Thomas Church (Leipzig), works for solo flute, crystal bowls and chimes based on Hildegard von Bingen chants, a set of character pieces for solo piano in collaboration with painters, and a book about Hildegard von Bingen.

Ann Gebuhr was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance in support of the composition of the cantata.