Composer to Celebrate Birthday at Harvard

The prolific composer and pianist Vincent Persichetti will celebrate his 70th birthday this week with three days of talks and performances hosted by Harvard and three other area colleges.

The Boston Conservatory, the University of Massachusetts and Tufts University will join the College in welcoming the Julliard School professor, who arrived for a three-day stay at Currier House late last night.

Persichetti, who has written more than 150 published compositions, will speak on WGBH radio today and then give a lecture on the music profession at a UMass-Boston luncheon.

The recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships, Persichetti will conduct a rehearsal at the Boston Conservatory tomorrow and then move to Harvard to lead a "Learning from Performers" session in the Currier House Senior Common Room.

On Friday night, Persichetti will be on hand for an open rehearsal of his Symphony Number Six with the Harvard Wind Ensemble. Later, the Currier House men's chorus will sing some of Persichetti's choral works.

Thomas G. Everett, conductor of Harvard's Wind Ensemble, described the composer's visit as a "great opportunity for students to hang out and rub shoulders with him."

"I've been playing Persichetti since high school, and I hear something new each time. I'm really looking forward to talking to him," said clarinetist Allen G. Feinstein '86.

Persichetti, who has been studying music since the age of five, teaches at both Julliard and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.