DePaul University's School of Music will host a concert of experimental music created and performed by seven international composers in collaboration, including German composer Gerhard Staebler and Korean composer Kunsu Shim, on May 6. The free public performance will begin at 8 p.m. in the DePaul Concert Hall, 800 West Belden Ave.

     Joining Staebler and Shim in the performance will be Northwestern University faculty composer Amnon Wolman of Israel, and three other Chicago-area composer/musicians -- Jeff Kowalkowski, a DePaul music faculty member; Michael Pisaro, a Northwestern faculty composer; Lou Mallozzi, a faculty sound artist at the School of the Art Institute; and Carrie Biolo, vituoso percussionist and DePaul alumna.

     Staebler and Shim, featured artists at The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art last year, are internationally known for their work in experimental music and new forms of artistic collaboration. Kowalkowski, who is organizing the DePaul concert, worked with Staebler, Shim and five other composers from around the world in 1998 on a New Music project at the Vacation Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. "In the spirit of the Vacation Course project, which involved the juxtaposition and simultaneous presentation of multiple streams of music based on a time scheme, the May 6 concert will be a collaboration between Staebler and Shim, and several highly respected local composers," Kowalkowski said.

     Kowalkowski has created a master time scheme of 75 minutes (the duration of the concert) which instructs each composer when they are to make sound. "There is no stylistic restriction or instrumental prescription, the composers work independently and come together in the performance without a full group rehearsal," he explained. "Thus, the outcome is partially the result of chance."

     The DePaul School of Music is co-sponsoring the concert with $FISHBOTHW$ MUSIC, and Sound Fields 2000. The concert is the first event in the Sound Fields Festival of Experimental and Improvised Music that will be performed in local venues from May 6 to June 11.

     For more information about the May 6 concert, call Kowalkowski at (773) 782-8263.