Present Music: Change

Milwaukee's fringe classical music ensemble Present Music begins its 2012/2013 season with “Change,” an ambitious program that sums up what the company is all about. The program promises to examine the evolution of contemporary music and shine a light on several contemporary composers, while incorporating some instruments that have traditionally had no role in classical music, including electric bass and guitar and manipulated electronics. Perhaps the piece that more explicitly explores the theme of change is Georg Friedrich Haas' <i>Tria ex uno</i>, which the Austrian composer updated from a work dating back to medieval times.