UNIVERSITY COMPOSER'S WORK TO BE PERFORMED IN ST. LOUIS

Robert Fruehwald has had kudos and crescendos in his short career as a composer, but Monday might be akin to a standing ovation.

His composition titled "K540" will be performed by members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a chamber music concert featuring works by some of Missouri's top composers.

An assistant professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University since 1989, Fruehwald last year heard one of his works performed by the Memphis Symphony.

"Having a piece played in Memphis was a high honor," he said, "but this is too. These players will be world class."

Claude Baker, the symphony's composer-in-residence, invited composers throughout the state to submit pieces for this "State of the State" concert, part of the symphony's Discovery Series. Fruehwald studied with Baker more than a decade ago at the University of Louisville.

In St. Louis he will be hearing the piece played for the first time at the rehearsal. You never know what that will sound like, he said. "Sometimes it's surprising. Sometimes you get what you expect."

The composition is based on a Mozart piano adagio. "I took melodies and harmonies and reworked them in my own style," Fruehwald said.

Its name derives from the work of a scholar named Koechel, who numbered Mozart's more than 600 compositions chronologically. Thus "K540."

The title is unusual, Fruehwald concedes, but then his latest piece is titled "Metamorphosis of My Cat Fletcher."

He composes primarily for flute, and a number of his works have been performed by fellow faculty member Paul Thompson. He also is doing a series of works based on hymns and employing flute and recorded electronic sounds.

The arrangement of "K540" is for flute, violin, viola and cello. "Mozart wrote a number of pieces for this combination," he said.

His own composition is much more minimalist than Mozart's, in the tradition of Philip Glass or Steve Reich.

The other composers whose works will be performed in concert are James Cheetham of Columbia; James Meyer and Robert Wykes, both of St. Louis; John Prescott of Springfield; James Woodard of Edwardsville, Ill.; and James C. Mobberley of Kansas City.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. Monday at the Sheldon, 3648 Washington Ave. at Grand Center. The seven composers will talk about their works in a pre-concert program at 7:30.