When the keynote speaker of this year’s 33rd annual Festival of New American Music at Sacramento State died several weeks before his speech on the opening day, organizers worked quickly to revamp the festival in honor of composer Arthur Jarvinen.

Distinguished American musicians from around the world will perform in the Festival of New American Music, also known as FeNAM. The festival began on Thursday and will run through Sunday.

The festival not only features free musical performances, but educates Sac State students as well.

“Education is a big part of the festival,” said music director Keith Bohm, co-director of FeNAM.

Along with in-class performances and “master classes,” where guest artists work with Sac State students one-on-one, the festival will also have outreach concerts at local middle schools and high schools, Bohm said.

Jarvinen, a composer, percussionist and bassist, was scheduled to be the festival’s keynote speaker but died Oct. 2.

Stephen Blumberg, music composition professor and artistic director of FeNAM, said he will remember Jarvinen’s diverse and unusual style of music.

“He used unusual instruments. There’s one piece that actually uses aerosol spray cans as a percussion instrument,” Blumberg said.

This year’s festival will be dedicated to Jarvinen’s memory. He instructed music composition at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

On Thursday, the opening day of the festival, close friend and composer Rand Steiger of UC San Diego spoke in memory of Jarvinen. He used video clips, music and notes Jarvinen had prepared for the keynote address.

“Rand was able to show not only the variety of (Jarvinen’s) music through the examples that were played, but also his experiences with Jarvinen on a personal level,” Bohm said.

More than 100 people attended the first performance of the festival on Thursday in the Music Recital Hall.

Percussionist Chris Froh opened the performance. He has performed around the world and is on the UC Davis faculty as director of the university’s Samba School and Percussion Group.

His first piece was unusual because the only instrument played was the triangle. His second piece, “Binge Delirium,” used a lot of great energy as he jumped and beat on a variety of drums during the faster parts of the song. The audience seemed to enjoy this piece as several people gave a standing ovation.

“It is an honor to be part of the festival,” Froh said.

Andrew Tholl, former student of Jarvinen’s at the California Institute of the Arts, performed after Froh. Tholl performed a piece composed by Jarvinen titled “Percy Grainger Fans the Muse Part II: Hardwick Rain.”

Tholl played violin alongside recorded rain that Jarvinen recorded himself. Tholl said Jarvinen was inspired to write the piece when he heard his wife playing music during a rainstorm.

“When I listen to it, I can’t help but imagine him crouching down to the ground, holding his hat over the recorder, with his eyes closed, listening,” Tholl said.

Tholl said although Jarvinen is gone, he will constantly be thinking about what Jarvinen would say about the pieces he creates.

Blumberg has been the festival’s artistic director since 2006, and worked as co-director since 1999. Bohm began co-directing the festival in 2005.

“In recent years it has been harder and harder to get the funding for (the festival),” Blumberg said.

As a result of less funding, he said the festival has shortened slightly. He said the event used to run for 12 days, but this year there will be 10 days of events.

“We still have concerts every night … and a lot of educational events, but sometimes we have to cut down the number of events based on (funding),” Blumberg said.

Sac State students will also perform during the festival. A student artist performance competition will be held at 3 p.m. today. A student composer’s competition will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday. Both events will be in Capistrano Hall, Room 151.

Blumberg and Bohm work year-round to organize FeNAM. Blumberg said some aspects of FeNAM 2010 were planned before last year’s festival.

“Sadly I think the most challenging aspect (of this year’s festival) was that less than a month ago I got a phone call saying that Dr. Jarvinen had died,” Blumberg said.

As long as Blumberg has been with the festival, nothing like that has ever happened. Blumberg said he considered cancelling the Gala Performance, in which Jarvinen was scheduled to perform with his group “TempWerks,” but decided instead to make the keynote address and Gala Performance a tribute to Jarvinen’s life and accomplishments.

Tzahuiztil Sanchez can be reached at [email protected]