spectri sonori contemporary music series

Spectri Sonori, a concert series and a chamber music ensemble specializing in performance of contemporary music, has been in residence at the Newcomb Music Department at Tulane University since 1987. Barbara Jazwinski has served as the Music Director of Spectri Sonori from its inception.

The series has presented established masterpieces of the recent past along with premieres of new works composed by our undergraduate and graduate students. The aim of Spectri Sonori is to introduce the New Orleans audience to the best works in the contemporary music literature and to encourage composers to create new chamber works by offering international composition contests, master classes, symposia, and various other special events in conjunction with the concert series. The series has been awarded grants from the French Government, Louisiana State Arts Council, Newcomb Foundation, Leonie D. Rothschild, Presser Foundation of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and a grant and a “Certificate of Excellence for Contribution to the Arts in the Greater New Orleans Community” from the David M. Metzner M.D. Foundation for the Arts. Among the artists who appeared on the series are Esther Lamneck, Alfonso Belfiore, Robert Rowe, Jeremy Huw Williams, Paula Fan, Leonello Tarabella, the Kandinsky Quartet, Duo Ariane, the New York University New Music Ensemble, 8 Strings & a Whistle, the Lunar Project, Lunatics at Large, Quatuor Francis Poulenc, The Hudson Saxophone Quartet, and members of the Louisiana Philharmonic.