Faculty Concert Series: Robert Haskins and Laurel Karlik Sheehan present Two_ by John Cage April 1

The Department of Music Faculty Concert Series presents Robert Haskins and Laurel Karlik Sheehan in a two piano concert featuring Two_, a 1989 work by Avant-garde composer, John Cage. The program is scheduled for Friday, April 1, at 8 p.m. in the Bratton Recital Hall of the Paul Creative Arts Center.

Haskins, assistant professor of music, teaches music history. He studied piano with George Imbragulio and Lillian Freundlich and harpsichord with Shirley Mathews, Christopher Kite, and Arthur Haas. Haskins holds a D.M.A. in harpsichord and a Ph.D. in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He has performed music by Baroque and 20th century composers on a variety of keyboard instruments, including original compositions with the synthesizer ensemble Industrial Arts, Bach harpsichord concertos with the Publick Musick (Rochester, New York), an early performance of Philip Glass's Two Pages (authorized by the composer), a realization of traditional African mbira music for two harpsichords and shaker, and many works by the American composer John Cage, whose late works are the subject of his research. Haskins also produced and performed in a fully-staged performance of Cage's Song Books in 2001 and, in December of that year, presented Cage’s I-VI as an all-night concert event. His recordings have appeared on the Leonarda and Canteloupe labels, and Mode Records will issue his performance of Cage's Two_ with Sheehan in 2005.

Sheehan gave the Canadian premiere of Cage’s Two_ in 1990 with Jack Behrens. She holds the Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She taught at the Peabody Preparatory from 1991 to 1995. While in Baltimore, she championed the work of contemporary composers through such activities as conceiving and curating the Baltimore Composers and Artists Project. She teaches in Colorado and continues to perform.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the UNH Department of Music at 2-2404.