Jennifer Higdon, the internationally celebrated composer and Bowling Green State University graduate, has added another distinction to her resume.
The recording of Higdon’s Percussion Concerto featuring percussionist Colin Currie and conducted by Marin Alsop was one of 25 recordings added to the National Recording Registry.
The registry was founded in 2000 by the Library of Congress to preserve recordings of historical and artistic importance.
Chronologically this year’s list starts with “Whisperin’” by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra from 1920 and concludes with the 2008 recording of Higdon’s concerto.
In between are recordings by Doctor Dre, Selena, Tina Turner, Fred Rogers, Glen Campbell, and “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People.
Recordings of historic events are also included, such as Russ Hodges’ call of the legendary National League tiebreaker between the New York Giant and Brooklyn Dodgers and the WBGH broadcast of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s performance the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The committee described Higdon’s concerto as “a drummer’s dream.”
The description goes to quote Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun, who wrote that the one-movement work “unleashes a kinetic storm of urban beats, balanced by passages of Asian-influenced musings that exploit the most seductive qualities of the diverse percussion instruments assigned to the soloist.”
Higdon taught herself to play flute at 15 while living in Tennessee. On the recommendation of a BGSU graduate, she came her to study music here, receiving her bachelor’s degree in music in 1986. It was at BGSU that she started to compose.
She has won a Pulitzer prize and three Grammy awards. She now teaches at Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia.
Coincidentally the conductor of the recording is Marin Alsop, who was the Hansen Musical Arts Series guest on campus in 2012.
Other campus visitors with recordings selected are:
• Fred Rogers, whose “Mister Rogers Sings 21 Favorite Songs From ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’” was added to the registry, received an honorary doctorate in 1987 and gave a well-remembered speech that opened with his leading the graduates and other attendees in a singalong of his show’s theme song.
• Another Hansen guest jazz composer Maria Schneider for “Concert in the Garden” from 2004. She was on campus in 2018 during Jazz Week. The recording features BGSU graduate Rick Perry on tenor saxophone.
• Legendary band master Frederick Fennell for a 1978 recording with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, the first commercial digital recording of symphonic music. He was the guest conductor for the BGSU’s New Band Music Reading Clinic in January 2004.
