PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING COMPOSER KAREL HUSA COMING TO SOUTHEAST

Karel Husa has spent most of his 77 years composing prize-winning music and conducting major orchestras from London to Hong Kong to New York. In March, Husa will spend a week at Southeast Missouri State University.

The festival will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning Husa in a week of classes, public lectures and concerts March 8 through 12.

"We're very excited," said Dr. Robert Gifford of the Southeast Missouri State University department of music.

"As far as the department of music is concerned, he's the most major figure we've had on campus."

The event is being presented by the department of music. Both Gifford and Husa are members of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles and had met in Holland 10 years ago. Southeast ensembles have performed some of the composer's music.

Husa is known for the intensity and emotion in his music, much of which is based on his feelings about social injustice, Gifford said.

"It's ironic because he's a very grandfatherly-type person. You'd think he'd look like Beethoven."

Husa's String Quartet No. 3 won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition in 1993 for his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

But Husa probably is best-known for his composition "Music for Prague 1968," a work that has been performed more than 7,000 times and has become part of the modern orchestral repertoire.

Long banned in Czechoslovakia as politically provocative, "Music for Prague" finally was performed in Husa's birthplace in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. Husa conducted and the Czechs audience rewarded him with a rare -- at least in Czechoslovakia -- standing ovation.

In 1995, Czech President Vaclav Havel awarded him the Czech Republic's Medal of Merit, First Degree, the highest honor the country bestows on a civilian.

Husa left Prague for Paris in 1946, where he studied with the famed composer Arthur Honegger and was taken in by famed composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. He came to the United States in 1954, accepting a position as a composer and conductor at Cornell University. He remained at Cornell for more than 30 years until his retirement.

On March 9, an evening of Husa's chamber works will be presented at Old St. Vincent's Church. Southeast faculty members Dr. Ronald Francois, Dr. Christopher Goeke, Dr. David Green, Lori Shafer, Daniel Shavers, Dr. James Sifferman and Paul Thompson will perform along with the University String Orchestra and the University Brass Choir.

On March 11, Husa will conduct a concert at Academic Auditorium for larger ensembles, including the University Choir and the Southeast Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Southeast faculty member Dr. Marc Fulgham will be the trumpet soloist.

Husa also will give a pre-concert lecture.

Both concerts are free.