The performers walk on stage clutching their instruments:violin, cello, flute &- and electric guitar.

When composer/performer Steven Mackey walks onto the MusicRecital Hall’s stage holding an electric guitar, you knowyou’re in for quite a different musical performance.

New York-based ensemble MOSAIC’s performance ofMackey’s work Monday (part of Sacramento State’sFestival of New American Music) was a clash of ideas, from thedefinition of what could function as a musical instrument (liketennis balls and wine bottles) to the sounds themselves whichseemed to battle each other like parts of the inner psyche.

Mackey’s first musical love was playing in rock bandsaround northern California, and he did undergraduate work at UCBerkeley.

He has received awards from the Kennedy Center and a GuggenheimFellowship for his work. Currently he is a professor of music atPrinceton University.

As he advanced into the ranks of concert music composers, henever left the electric guitar behind, and he returned to it in the”80s and in this performance.

Mackey took the stage hugging a teal electric guitar that lookedlike it could be hung from a rock star’s neck. Mackey himselflooked the part of the rock star, with his eye-length locks andvelvet pants.

The piece in which he performed, Heavy/Light, takes its namefrom the “60s rock “n’ roll trend of juxtaposingthe heavy with the light in band names, like in Iron Butterfly andLed Zeppelin.

Mackey derives a little more than a name from “60s rockwhen he plays with psychedelia in the piece. Mackey solos like arocker with lightening fast licks and uses the tremolo bar tooptimum effect.

But his subtler guitar work is impressive as well – it hauntsthe soul and sounds a bit like the guitar on Radiohead’s”Hunting Bears” off the “Amnesiac” album.Using an e-bow and tapping to coax whines and murmurs out of thestrings, he creates an ambient, moody piece, amplified by aninterlude of pre-recorded computerized voices.

The earlier pieces in the performance captured the essence ofMackey as well.

The first work was Mackey’s Indigenous Instruments. Likethe other works that night, this piece was cinematic, capturing thesuspense of a Hitchcock film with its spine-tingling sharpness.

Each instrument could work alone – a pluck of the cello, aflutter on flute or moan on violin – but they also layered togetherin a glorious cacophony that could grate your nerves and heightenyour anxiety. Violinist Shem Guibbory did this to great effect whenhe let his bow bounce off the violin, creating an eerie rubber bandsound.

Mackey then addressed the audience, explaining the percussionused in his next work, Micro-Concerto.

He shared his fascination with percussion instruments, saying hesaw them as toys to play with when he wrote the piece.

“I really was interested in inventing the music and theplaying techniques. I’m interested in the randomized bouncingof things,” Mackey said.

The technique is what shines in Micro-Concerto, a work in thatexemplifies the sheer delight of making sound. Tuna fish cans,Scotch bottles and toy cricket clickers are used as percussion inthe concerto. Dan Druckman provided the deep rumble of percussionunder the high-pitched wind accompaniment. The height of hisrhythmic skill came in the third movement, Click, Clak, Clank.Rattles, whistles and clicks sounded like sound effects from acartoon and were performed with the fluid and randomized movementsMackey intended.

At times, the work taps into cinema again, sounding like itcould have been lifted from the soundtrack to “AmericanBeauty.” The pleasure of the show was certainly extractedfrom the cinematic visuals and emotions the performance creates inthe audience’s mind.

FestivalEvents

Wednesday

Delbert Bump Jazz Organ Quintet Noon. UniversityUnion Redwood Room.

CSUS Student Artists Performance/Competition 3 p.m. MusicRecital Hall in Capistrano Hall.

Cassatt String Quartet with Irene Strempel, soprano. 8 p.m.Music Recital Hall in Capistrano Hall.

THURSDAY

Music for Hammers and Sticks 8 p.m. Music Recital Hall inCapistrano Hall.

Composer’s Forum with Stephen Blumberg and electronic mediaartist Rachel Clarke. Noon. Capistrano Hall 223.

Composer’s Forum with Belinda Reynolds and Alex Shapiro. 3 p.m.Capistrano Hall 205.

FRIDAY

CSUS Student Composers Performance/Competition 3 p.m. CapistranoHall 151.

Capital Jazz Project with guest trombonist Conrad Herwig. 8 p.m.Music Recital Hall in Capistrano Hall.

SATURDAY

Young Festival Performers Recital Noon. Capistrano Hall 151.

CSUS Festival Ensemble 8 p.m. Music Recital Hall in CapistranoHall.

SUNDAY

John Tchicai Quartet 8 p.m. Music Recital Hall in CapistranoHall.

What’s ‘new’ about Music festival?

The “new” in Sacramento State’s 2003 Festivalof New American Music is a word that’s a bit hard to pindown.

“It’s hard because you never know what to call thismusic,” said Stephen Blumberg, professor of composition andmusic theory and also this year’s director of thefestival.

Many of the compositions featured are from the last quartercentury, Blumberg said, so they aren’t new in the sense thatthey are recent compositions. He said new stands for contemporaryclassical or “new’ music from America. “Being newand from America might be all the events have in common,” hesaid.

Semantics aside, the festival is in its 26th year of bringingcontemporary music to campus.Most of the events are free and heldat area high schools and community colleges.

The festival continues through Sunday.

-Michelle Miller

For more information on any New Music Festival event, call(916) 278-5155.