New Music DePaul, the professional contemporary music series sponsored by DePaul University’s School of Music, opens its three-concert season Nov. 5 with two piano pieces by composer George Flynn, including "Pieces of Night," a 50-minute work which will be performed in its entirety by a series of pianists. The program also includes selections by electronic music composer Ilhan Mimaroglu.

The free, public concert begins at 8 p.m. at the DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave.

Flynn will perform a 10-minute excerpt from "Salvage," one of three parts of a composition called "Trinity," his longest piano work to date. The three parts: "Kanal," "Wound," and "Salvage," juxtapose quiet and violent passages. The work has historical and religious inspirations.

"Kanal," which means sewer in Polish, was inspired by a 1950s film Flynn saw about Polish civilians during World War II. "Believing the Russian army was coming, they rose up against the Nazis," he explained. "The Russians never appeared. The civilians fled into the sewers, where they were exterminated. Symbolizing this below-ground struggle, the last two-thirds of the piece is anchored to the lower half of the piano."

"Wound" remembers the upheaval of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, vivid memories for Flynn who taught at Columbia University in New York in 1968. The campus was closed down that year by war protests.

"Salvage" reconciles the earlier pieces with "a quieter series of meditations on salvation," he said.

The complete 90-minute "Trinity" is featured on Flynn’s new two-CD set, also named "Trinity." The Southport Composers CD will be issued at a release party at noon on Nov. 8 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.

Another work by Flynn, the 50-minute "Pieces of Night," will receive a unique performance at the concert. Flynn and three other pianists will present the entire work by playing in shifts, with the continuousness and continuity being preserved. Although unusual, Flynn said it is not the first time he has performed a long, demanding piece with a series of fellow pianists. He has twice participated in marathon performances of Erik Satier’s "Vexations," an 18-hour work.

Flynn’s solo performance of the complete "Pieces of Night" will be featured on his next CD by the same name, which will be released by Southport Composers in later this fall. The piece is one of more than 100 works of music he has written in all media during his career.

Several pieces by Turkish composer Mimaroglu, an electronic music pioneer, also will be played at the concert. They appear on Mimaroglu’s recently released CD collection of previously unrecorded works, "Outstanding Warrant"

The next concerts in the New Music DePaul series will be at 8 p.m. on Feb. 11 and May 12. The February concert will feature contemporary flutist Robert Dick. DePaul Music faculty member Mary Stolper, principal flute of the Concertante di Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta chamber orchestras, and DePaul’s flute department will host the event. The May concert will present experimental music by bass clarinetist Gene Coleman and his Ensemble Noamnesia.

The annual New Music DePaul series features performances by distinguished guest artists, DePaul School of Music faculty members and alumni who play professionally with prestigious area orchestras and ensembles. The series presents an eclectic mix of music by established international, Midwest and DePaul composers. Flynn, chairman of DePaul’s musicianship studies program, directs the series. For more information, call 773/325-7260.