Cornish College celebrates 30 years as concert presenter

Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle's longtime leader in experimental classical-music presentation, is busting at the seams this year with new activity.

The occasion: the school's 30th anniversary as a concert presenter. Cornish Music Department Chair Kent Devereaux, who came onboard in 2008, wants to remind Seattleites of the stellar lineup of musical stars who've appeared here in the past: John Adams, Philip Glass, Toru Takemitsu, Joshua Bell, John Cage, Lou Harrison. "It just goes on and on and on."

This year's lineup is equally vigorous, Devereaux says, and he's eager to get out the news: "We're doing a series. We're bringing in these really amazing people. Well, then, let's do a better job of making sure the community's aware of it."

Here's what's coming:

Mara Gearman (Oct. 30): The Seattle Symphony violist who teaches at Cornish performs pieces by Brahms, Paganini and Shostakovich with pianist Jerrod Wendland and mezzo soprano Kathryn T. Weld. Gearman has performed with American String Project, Simple Measures and Seattle Chamber Players. In short, Gearman, who was just named third chair in the Seattle Symphony, is a very busy violist-about-town.

Paul Taub (Nov. 14): The fearless flutist for the Seattle Chamber Players celebrates his 30th year performing in Seattle with a globe-hopping program ranging in locale from Rio de Janeiro to Azerbaijan. The evening's most unusual offering may be Henry Brant's "Ghosts and Gargoyles" for flute orchestra and jazz drummer: a "spatial" composition played from various nooks and crannies of the concert hall.

Pianist Rei Hotoda (Nov. 21): The assistant conductor for the Dallas Symphony presents a program of contemporary Asian piano music, drawn in part from her new CD, "Apparitions," featuring work by Takemitsu, Jun Kouda, Vivian Fung and half a dozen others. Hotoda's crystalline touch, ranging from gossamer to percussive as required, illuminates both ravishing and difficult scores.

Gamelan Pacifica (Dec. 5): Cornish's homegrown ensemble performs works by visiting composer Jody Diamond, whom Devereaux describes as a "second-generation" Western composer for gamelan orchestra. Diamond's new CD, "In That Bright World," sets Western text — from Stephen Foster to Jewish religious song — to traditional gamelan-orchestra backdrop. By contrast, her instrumental "Kenong" is a stark, hypnotic exercise in gamelan minimalism.

Cornish's spring offerings look equally promising with visits from the Corigliano Quartet, Icicle Creek Piano Trio and Indonesian gamelan composer Rahayu Supanggah.

Details: www.cornish.edu/music/series.