Pianist Kristi Becker to Play Barlow for Free Recital at UCSB

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By Gerald Carpenter, Noozhawk Contributor

Thursday's program will include the use of Indian classical music.

At 7 p.m. Thursday in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, the UCSB Department of Music will present a free recital by guest pianist Kristi Becker of Cologne, Germany, performing works by UCSB Corwin Chair composer Clarence Barlow.

The program will include the use of North Indian classical music in three works: Until, Relationships and Ludus Ragalis.

Barlow also makes use of traditional music and forms in Ludus Ragalis, and in L’orchidee d’argent and Pandora. Finally, Becker demonstrates Barlow’s signature command of computer-generated music in Textmusic, Pandora and Kuri Suti Bekar.

Barlow has occupied the Corwin Chair since the fall of 2006. He was born in India to parents of European descent. It was a very shrewd and forward-looking of the UCSB Music Department to appoint Barlow to the Corwin chair: His reputation as a composer-teacher-inventor-musical entrepreneur grows exponentially by the year. The 21st century has little use for the binding strictures of Austrian serialism, or any other formula-driven composition schemes. All creativity is, as Barlow has said, “a matter of inspiration.”

"Barlow is known for his pioneering work with computers, but also for his use of classical melodies and forms — in his case, also melodies or rhythmic patterns from India — to form a very new, very personal music,” Becker says. “By the way, Kuri Suti Bekar and I are one and the same; it is simply the Japanese pronunciation of my name. Hope you will enjoy listening to these wonderful piano works as much as I do playing them.”

Becker lives in Cologne and teaches piano at the Music University in Detmold. She has worked closely with Barlow for many years and has premiered a great many of his compositions, including several in her UCSB recital. Born in Iowa,

Becker studied piano with James Avery and Carl Seemann and completed her studies as a Fulbright Scholar in Freiburg, Germany. A special interest in the music of our time has led to close work with noted composers from Europe, the American Continent and Asia, many of whom have written especially for her. She has recorded for all major German radio stations as well as in numerous other European countries and Japan. She is a frequent guest at international festivals, also including concerts with ensembles and orchestras.

Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.

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