CONTACT: Ellen Schantz at 847-491-5726 or eschantz@northwestern.edu

FOR RELEASE: December 22, 2008

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Lee Hyla's Polish Folk Songs to be Performed by
Members of the Chicago Symphony January 12

EVANSTON --- Professor Lee Hyla, who holds the Harry and Ruth Wyatt Chair of Music Theory and Composition, will have his work Polish Folk Songs performed by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 12 at 8 p.m. in the Harris Theater at 205 East Randolph Drive. The program also includes works by Luís Tinoco (Portugal), Brett Dean (Australia), and Heiner Goebbels (Germany), with Cliff Colnot conducting. The concert is part of the MusicNOW series and reflects the CSO's season-long "Echoes of Nations" theme that examines contrasting national voices.

Hyla's piece is a 13-minute work for clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion. It was premiered in May 2007 at the Tsai Center in Boston, performed by the Boston Musica Viva with Richard Pittman conducting.

Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Hyla joined the Bienen School faculty in 2007. He has written for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Speculum Musicae, and has received commissions from the Koussevitzky, Fromm, Barlow, and Naumberg Foundations, the Mary Flagler Carey Charitable Trust, Concert Artists Guild, Chamber Music America, and the Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Consortium. Hyla's honors include the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the St. Botolph Club Award, and the Rome Prize. He has served as resident composer of the American Academy in Rome and was a composition fellow at the Camargo Foundation in Cxassis France. Hyla‚s works are published exclusively by Carl Fisher and recorded by Nonesuch, New World, Avant, Tzadik and CRI. He previously served as chair of the composition department of New England Conservatory.

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