Troy, N.Y. – Michael Century will perform a solo concert at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute showcasing his musical versatility with a repertoire combining classical and experimental pieces, and piano and accordion performances.

The concert, “Bach and Beyond,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in Studio 2 at EMPAC. The concert is free and open to the public.

Century will perform Johann Sebastian Bach on piano and then perform seminal 20^th century music on both piano and accordion.

The concert will present a broad vista of the keyboard music of Bach — the French Overture and three selections from Bach’s 48 preludes and fugues in the Well Tempered Keyboard — in counterpoint to an unusual selection of compositions by four of the leading voices in creative music from the mid-20th century — Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and Morton Feldman.

“I see Bach not as a remote, if revered, figure from our classical past, but as very much ‘alive’ and our contemporary,” Century said. “The emphasis on classical pieces by Bach alongside more recent experimental music is a personal homecoming, of sorts. I've been performing Bach keyboard music for 40 years, and arranging this program to include a spectrum of music from my own time has happily allowed me to rediscover the earlier masterworks in a fresh way”.

Century is a professor of new media and music in the Department of the Arts in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer. He teaches a variety of courses in media art history and theory, and music history. For further information about the program see www.michaelcentury.com.