ARTSaha! was Omaha's new music festival. Held in the late summer, it was an annual showcase of contemporary music and art that stresses interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. ''ARTSaha!'' was produced by ANALOG ''arts ensemble'', a non-profit global collective of artists. It was founded in 2004 and held annually through 2008.

History

''ARTSaha!'' was established as a volunteer festival in 2004 by ANALOG. The first year featured a series of chamber music concerts with eclectic programs ranging from the Baroque to rock music. Highlights included a brass quintet version of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...

, a rare

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

film score, and a concert of guerrilla electronic music. ''ARTSaha! 2005'' featured a production of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

's ''

Musical Offering ''The Musical Offering'' (German: or ), BWV 1079, is a collection of keyboard canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick the Great (King Frederick II of Prus ...

'' where four ensembles performed the work simultaneously and the audience was able to create their own arrangement by moving between rooms. There were also outdoor performances of

Alvin Lucier Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American experimental composer and sound artist. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Ar ...

's ''Chambers'' in Omaha's Old Market, and

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

's '' From the Seven Days'' on the Gene Leahy Mall. The festival also featured the meta-opera ''Notes from the Next Dark Age.'' ''ARTSaha! 2006'' highlighted the

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

centenary with a program of several short plays, including ''Quad'', ''

Nacht und Träume Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams) is a lied for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, from a text by Matthäus von Collin, and published in 1825. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 827. The song, a meditation on ni ...

'', ''Breath'', ''Come & Go'', ''Not I'', ''Rockaby'' and ''Act Without Words II''. This was the first year of production funding for some events at the festival, such as the reworking of

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of ...

's '' The Festivities of Hebe''. Other events continued to be produced on a fringe basis such as a concert of electronic music in the Mallory Kountze Planetarium. 2006 also saw the establishment of a production partnership between ANALOG and the

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is a public university, public research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Omaha, Nebraska), Omaha Presbyterian Theological ...

. ''ARTSaha! 2007'' focused on

Futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

with only the fourth US performance of George Antheil's original soundtrack for ''Ballet Mécanique''. The festival also featured a 24-hour performance of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

's '' ASLSP'', and the first Iron Composer Competition, where five student composers had five hours to complete a score for woodwind quintet based on a secret ingredient. The secret ingredient was the main motif to the theme song for the TV show ''

The Jetsons ''The Jetsons'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It originally aired in prime time from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963, on ABC, then later aired in reruns via syndication, with new episodes produc ...

''. ''ARTSaha! 2008'' celebrated the 80th anniversary of

's birth. ANALOG gave the US premieres of ''Friday Greeting'' and ''Cosmic Pulses'', the latter of which is the last piece of electronic music Stockhausen ever composed. The Iron Composer competition was won by Hermes Camacho, a composer from California and living in Texas. The instrumentation was piano trio and the secret ingredient was Monet's ''

Impression, Sunrise ''Impression, Sunrise'' () is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the " Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in April, 1874. The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movem ...

''. Guest artists included Stuart Gerber (Stockhausen's last percussionist), Monument Piano Trio, dung, and the Microscore Project. The festival program also included several selections from George Brecht's Water Yam.

External links

''ARTSaha!''

ANALOG ''arts ensemble''

The University of Nebraska at Omaha

References

{{Reflist Contemporary classical music festivals Culture of Omaha, Nebraska Music festivals in Nebraska Classical music festivals in the United States