Innovative 20-member chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound to perform Oct. 31

Virginia Tech Department of Music's University Chamber Music Series adds a little spice to their season line-up with the 20-member classical, experimental band Alarm Will Sound performing on Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m., in the Squires Student Center Recital Salon.

The Oct. 31 performance will include Conlon Nancarrow’s Player Piano Study No. 2A, 3A, and 6; Josquin des Prez’s Agnus Dei II from Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales; and a piece by the very famous and inventive Aphex Twin entitled Gwely Mernans.

Artists-in-Residence at Dickinson College, Alarm Will Sound began playing together in 2001, in Rochester, N.Y. Performing with as many as twenty instruments ranging from the classical flute and violin to the unusual cracklebox from the 1960’s, their interpretation of chamber music performance has been dubbed “the future of classical music” by The New York Times.

Their repertoire includes European and American and ranges from the arch-modernist to the pop-influenced. The ensemble has become a regular feature at Carnegie Hall in addition to performing at the Lincoln Center Festival, The Roxy, and numerous performances in Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. Alarm Will Sound guarantees their fans a continuous entertaining musical and theatrical experience.

Alarm Will Sound musicians are also composers and musical directors trained at some of the most prestigious musical institutions.

“We think of ourselves more as a band than as an orchestra,” explains Artistic Director Alan Pierson, “which means we can’t be reduced to just the instruments we play. It very much matters who is playing those instruments.” With diverse experience in composition, improvisation, jazz, popular styles, early music and world music, they bring intelligence and a sense of adventure to all of their performances.

Pierson, artistic director, conductor, keyboard player, and driving force behind Alarm Will Sound, became interested in music at a very young age and began conducting his first musicals at the age of eight. Considered a prodigy, he was waving world-renowned Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor Sir Georg Solti’s baton at the age of six. After a stint as a physics major at MIT, Pierson came back to his first love and formed Alarm Will Sound. He also conducts many other ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta, Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, the New World Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Ireland's Crash Ensemble where he is Principal Conductor.

Tickets for the University Chamber Music Series are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students and are available in advance at the UUSA Ticket Office, (540) 231-5615, or at the door one hour prior to performance.

For more information on the performance, please contact the School of the Arts at (540) 231-5200.

Story written by Molly Martel.