From the February 2015 Desktop News | Legendary musician and composer Anthony Braxton will spend Feb. 18-25 at UA working with College of Arts and Sciences students and faculty as part of a weeklong residency presented by the Sonic Frontiers concert series.

This event is the first major residency by Braxton in the Southeastern United States and will be one of the largest retrospectives of his work ever produced. Braxton will work with students from the College’s art, percussion, jazz studies, theatre and dance programs, as well as arts administration students. This residency was funded in part by a National Endowment for the Arts “Art Works” grant.

“This landmark series of internationally significant events by one of the most celebrated and prolific of American composer/performers is evidence of UA’s emergence as a center for groundbreaking research in the arts,” said Dr. Andrew Dewar, assistant professor for interdisciplinary arts in New College. “This project is the pinnacle of my seven years of work building both an audience and a home for experimental music at the University.”

Braxton’s musical career spans more than five decades. His many awards include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, a 2009 honorary doctorate from the Université de Liège in Belgium, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2013 New Music USA Letter of Distinction. He is also a 2014 NEA Jazz Master.

Braxton is one of the most prolific and eclectic American composer/performers of the past 50 years, composing more than 400 pieces, ranging from small ensemble works to operas, works for multiple orchestras, and a piece for 100 tubas. Braxton’s work appears on nearly 200 recordings.

UA art students are also exhibiting exhibit works inspired by Braxton this month at The University of Alabama Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in downtown Tuscaloosa. The exhibit, “Anthony Braxton: Falling River Music Exhibition,” will be on display through Feb. 27.

The exhibit and weeklong residency are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and The University of Alabama’s New College, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, School of Music, jazz studies program, Blount Undergraduate Initiative, Honors College, University Programs, departments of American studies and department of gender and race studies. For a full schedule of events, visit http://www.sonicfrontiers.ua.edu/upcoming-events.