Tony Oliver performs “SPACES" at the Figge Art Museum -- October 13.

Thursday, October 13, 6 p.m.

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

In a special October 13 presentation at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, Augustana College professor and longtime Quad City Symphony Orchestra musician Tony Oliver will perform the world premiere of composer James Romig's SPACES, an 80-minute composition for solo vibraphone – a ringing keyboard percussion instrument capable of conjuring a dreamy, contemplative atmosphere of gentle harmony and intriguing timbre.

Tony Oliver is an assistant professor of music and teaches music appreciation courses in the FYI (a liberal arts sequence for the first-year college student), as well as all things percussive. When away from Augustana, he is often a clinician and adjudicator for percussion events, and is particularly involved in the New Horizons Music program, a lifelong learning environment designed around the older adult musician. In addition to performing with the QCSO, Oliver is the solo percussionist and timpanist for the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and various other chamber and solo engagements round out his performance schedule each year. He received degrees from the University of Iowa (BM, MA) and from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (DMA), and serves as a regional education artist for Pearl/Adams percussion, a Sabian cymbal artist, and proprietor of Curving Walkway Publications, whose percussion publications have been performed throughout North America and Europe.

A native of Long Beach, California, SPACES composer James Romig has been a professor of music composition at Western Illinois University in Macomb since 2001, and also heads the composition/theory area. He earned BM and MM degrees in from the University of Iowa in percussion performance, and a PhD in composition from Rutgers University, where he studied with Charles Wuorinen. He studied additionally with Milton Babbitt, and both Babbitt and Wuorinen served on his dissertation committee. Romig's STILL, a composition for solo piano, was performed at the Figge in 2018 and was recognized as a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize, and its creator has also served as an Artist in Residence for Everglades National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and Petrified Forest National Park. During the Figge's world premiere of SPACES, audience members will have the opportunity to sit and listen to Romig's work, wander the museum as the sound flows through the galleries, or to do a little of each.

SPACES will be performed in Davenport on October 13, admission to the 6 p.m. concert event is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.

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