Dahn premieres composition in NYC

“Penumbrae,” a composition by Northwestern College music professor Dr. Luke Dahn, will receive its New York premiere on Sunday, Feb. 24. The co-winner of the 2010 League of Composers/ISCM Composition Competition will be performed by the League of Composers Chamber Players at the Terni Cultural Institute in Greenwich Village at 3 p.m.

Dahn’s work, recorded on the Albany label, was scored for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano. Written in 2008 for the Moscow Conservatory’s Studio for New Music, the piece features pervading resonant “shadows” that lead to a penetrating climactic ending centered on a single note.

“Penumbrae” and co-winner “Piano Trio,” written by Jordan Kuspa, will be joined on the New York program by works from Aaron Copland, David Chaitkin and Christian Carey.

A professor of music theory and composition at Northwestern since 2007, Dahn received the Northwestern Teaching Excellence Award in 2011. He earned a doctorate in music composition from the University of Iowa, a Master of Music degree from Western Michigan University and a bachelor’s in music from Houston Baptist University.