Dean Drummond has a new opera - performance next week

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/09/peak_performances_series_finds.html

""Cafe Buffe," a one-act opera set in a contemporary eatery, blends microtonal music, nouveau cuisine and existential questions, and is spiced with humor throughout. The work premieres Thursday at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University and will be performed by Newband, the Artist-Ensemble-in-Residence at the Harry Partch Institute.

With music by Dean Drummond, director of MSU's Partch Instrumentarium, and a libretto by Charles Bernstein, "Cafe Buffe" will feature a wide variety of unconventional instruments, including inventions by Partch and Drummond. Paul Hostetter conducts, and singers include baritone Daniel Keeling, mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert, bass Robert Osborne, soprano Beth Griffith, soprano Charlotte Tucci and baritone Jeremy Brauner."
......
"Among the instruments being used are Drummond's Zoomoozophone, which he describes as a huge metallic percussion instrument played by four people, and his Juststrokerods, metallic rods coated with rosin and played by hand to produce a long-lasting, ethereal sound. Both instruments have 31 notes per octave, instead of the typical 12."

More here: http://peakperfs.org/performances/newband_2009

World Premiere
Newband
Thursday September 10, 2009 • 7:30PM

Prent Rodgers