Bates duo-piano concert features music by visiting composer

Pianists Shiau-Uen Ding and Jacob Rhodebeck perform a program including music by Christopher Bailey, visiting assistant professor of music at Bates College, at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in the college’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The pair will play Bailey’s Sonata and his “Balladei,” as well as works by Christopher Fox and Morritz Eggert. The concert is open to the public at no charge. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Ding and Rhodebeck recorded the 2007 album “Christopher Bailey — Music for Piano” (Electric Music Collective, 2007), which includes the two works slated for the Bates concert.

Born near Philadelphia, Bailey began composing in his late teens. His works cover a wide range of instruments, styles and musical formats, from such “musique concrete” works as “Ow, My Head” to “Meditation by the Lake,” a work for string orchestra.

He earned degrees in composition at the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University. Learn more at his Web site.

A native of Taiwan, Ding is a rising presence on the new and electro-acoustic music scenes. She is the founding director of NeXT Ens, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning and performing music for ensemble and electronics, as well as an original and energetic performer of standard solo and chamber repertoire. She has collaborated with numerous internationally renowned musicians and has recorded for Capstone Records.

Rhodebeck is known for his facile technique and his enthusiasm for new and unknown music. He has collaborated with and premiered works by Shinuh Lee and Lukas Ligeti, among many others, and has championed works by composers including Thomas Ades, Pascal Dusapin, Per Norgaard and Frederic Rzewski.

He has a performed as a soloist with the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Symphony Band and as a member of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players. He is finishing a doctoral degree at Stony Brook University, studying with the renowned Gilbert Kalish.