As part of the 23rd annual Festival of New American Music, an offbeat percussion performance by George Crumb will take place at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 7 in the Sacramento State Music Recital Hall.

Crumb, best known for his contemporary compositions, will be performing with classical guitarist David Starobin.

In 1968, Crumb won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1968 piece, “Echoes of Time and the River.” He is said to have transformed American composing by using simple vocal effects, such as hissing, whispering and even shouting in his pieces. In addition many of his works, including “Ancient Voices of Children” (1970), stem from poetry written by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Sac State percussion professor and director of the Festival of New American Music, Daniel Kennedy feels that the performance by Crumb will be a special delight to his fans because the composer does not regularly perform percussion.

“More than any other composer, Crumb really thinks about the sounds an instrument produces when he writes a piece,” Kennedy said. He added that it will show through in his festival performance, he said.

Crumb has written several compositions for Starobin. There have been more than 300 works composed for or dedicated to Starobin by composers during the last 25 years. Starobin is the only guitarist ever to be awarded the Avery Fisher Career Prize from Lincoln Center.