Alan Pierson and Ben Bolter, conductors; Steven Kazuo Takasugi, guest composer 

The Contemporary Music Ensemble’s May performance features a new work by student composer Casey Weisman, James Tenney’s microtonal ‘Scend for Scelsi, and Steven Kazuo Takasugi’s Sideshow for amplified ensemble and electronic playback. Takasugi’s theatrical work, inspired by Coney Island’s early-20th-century sideshow entertainment, examines the intersection of spectacle and sacrifice in the name of showbusiness. The composer explains, “The performers think of themselves as characters in a sideshow. The saxophonist is the Sideshow Giant…the violist is a sword swallower…the pianist is the Human Spider…the percussionist is the Sideshow Proprietor/Announcer. Each character…has his or her uncanny double, twin, imposter, accomplice, copycat, deformed clone.”