In C and Me by Michael Colquhoun

“In C” changed my life. Forever. This is how:

I was in high school (Bennett) and had just taken I think it was my PSAT exam on a Saturday morning. Afterwards I decided to walk to the UB Main St. Campus to see what exciting things were happening there. I went to the student union and there, in the lounge, was Jan Williams and his UB Percussion Ensemble playing the strangest, most compelling music I had ever heard. It was “In C”. They were about one third through it at the part with the rising triplets. The bouncing around motivs with the surreal, mesmerizing pulse was like nothing I had heard before. I stayed until the end, transfixed by this bizarre music.

Up till then I had been listening to a lot of classical music as well as funky jazz organ and the usual pop (Beatles etc.). After this amazing listening experience I started to go to the “Evenings For New Music” concerts at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and found so many more strange and marvelous musics to enjoy.

Who’d have thought that so many years later I would be performing “In C” with Jan Williams! I am now, in a way, back full circle to where it all started for me in the late 1960s.

— Michael Colquhoun

In C will be performed on Friday, July 13 as part of M&T Second Friday at the Burchfield Penney. It is a collaboration with Squeaky Wheel's Silent/Sound Film Festival.

Has music and art had this kind of impact on you? Email Don Metz at metzdj@buffalostate.edu to share your story!

About Michael Colquhoun
Composer/flutist Michael Colquhoun is currently active as a solo recitalist, as a teacher and composer, and as Adjunct Professor of Music at Canisius College. He has earned his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo where he studied with Robert Dick, Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, and Leo Smit.

Michael Colquhoun's works have been published by McGinnis and Marx Music Publishers, and performed by Los Caribes, the New Music Consort, the Talking Drums, the New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo, the Schanzer/Speach Duo, the Buried Treasures Ensemble, the East Buffalo Media Association, and the Maelström Percussion Ensemble.

Dr. Colquhoun's compositions draw upon both the Classical and Jazz traditions, and often involve a mixture of composed and improvised elements working together to produce a coherent whole.

Dr. Colquhoun currently has available a solo CD Jar of Stones and a self titled CD from Los Caribes. He has received commissions from The New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, The National Flute Association and the Buffalo Public Schools.

Michael Colquhoun's compositions have been performed at numerous venues in Western New York and Western Europe, and at concerts in New York City, Boston, San Diego, Cleveland, Oakland, Kansas City, Toronto, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Ghent, Prague, and Seoul. Selected compositions have also been broadcast on WEBR-AM, WBFO-FM, WHLD-AM and WNED-FM. The jazz ensemble pieces have been in continual performance by Buffalo, Boston, Miami and New York City jazz ensembles.