On April 7, 2006, the Mitchell Center presented a festival of music by composer Stephen Montague in the Moores Opera House.  The evening consisted of two distinct sections.  It began in the Fine Arts Quadrangle with Houston Art Cars perform Horn Concerto, an orchestra piece for automobiles, which was presented in collaboration with the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, and featured The Art Guys as guest soloists.  Following the outdoor performance, the audience proceeded to the Moores Opera House for a presentation of Dark Sun, an evening length concert of dance and music composed by Montague and performed by students and faculty from the UH Schools of Music and Dance. 

Biography: Stephen Montague grew up in West Virginia and Florida. He studied piano, conducting and composition at Florida State University, received a doctorate in composition from Ohio State University and won a Fulbright Fellowship to work in Warsaw, Poland, 1972-74.

Montague came to England first as a musician with Strider Dance Co. but since 1975 has worked as a freelance composer based in London and touring worldwide. His music has been widely performed, featuring in numerous international festivals including the BBC Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Paris Festival d'Automne, Singapore, Hong Kong and The Kennedy Center. Major commissions have included a piano concerto for the BBC Proms, Hilliard Ensemble, works for pianist Stephen Kovacevich, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, the International Computer Music Association, and a 35 minute work for narrator and orchestra for the BT Celebration Series premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, London .

Although a long term UK resident, his compositional influences are transatlantic. He comments: "I have lived in Britain since 1974 but my musical heroes remain American: I admire Charles Ives's unapologetic juxtaposition of vernacular music and the avant-garde, Henry Cowell's irreverent use of fist and arm clusters, the propulsive energy of minimalism and John Cage's radical dictum that 'all sound is music’”.

In the UK, Stephen Montague helped found Sonic Arts Network and chaired the SPNM (Society for the Promotion of New Music) for several years. He has also served as Associate Composer with The Orchestra of St. Johns, London and Featured Composer for the City of Oxford. Internationally, Montague was a guest professor at the University of Texas-Austin and at the University of Auckland, NZ. He has earned numerous honours and awards including 1st prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition, the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation for Excellence in Composition, and the Ohio State University Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Compact discs of his works are available on ASV (UK), Continuum (NZ), Centaur (USA), Point Records (USA) and others.

www.ump.co.uk/montague.htm