FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas New Music Ensemble will close its fall concert season with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the Fine Arts Center's Stella Boyle Concert Hall. The public is invited and admission is free.

Entitled Playing With Fire, the program focuses on the caustic and bombastic character of one of nature's primal elements. Playing With Fire will feature the University of Arkansas Percussion Ensemble as well as Dr. Theresa Delaplain, instructor of oboe in the department of music.

The program begins with the University of Arkansas Percussion Ensemble's performance of Christopher Nickel's Firedance. Composed for a percussion octet, Firedance is a musical as well as physical performance. Through the use of asymmetric meters and contrapuntal polyrhythms, Firedance creates tension and heat that drives the piece to an explosive conclusion.

The program continues with Jess Turner's Burning Music followed by Roshanne Etezady's Hot Water, Burn Baby. To conclude the program, the ensemble will feature Theresa Delaplain as solo oboist and a small chamber ensemble in Michael Daugherty's Firecracker. Based on the technically strenuous etudes of Antonio Pasculli, Firecracker creates an auditory fireworks show through deliberate spacing of sound.

"It's an amazing opportunity to get to see Dr. Delaplain perform" says Tori Bingham, junior oboe player. "I've taken lessons with Dr. Delaplain, so it is especially rewarding to see how her technique influences her performance. By performing with the New Music Ensemble, we get to see the application of her hard work and practice. It makes me excited to learn and grow as a musician."

The concert is presented by the department of music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.