Musica Nova, the UMKC Conservatory contemporary music ensemble, showed Saturday that not only historic composers deserve anniversary celebrations.</p><p>While many performers are celebrating anniversaries of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Handel and Purcell, Musica Nova observed the 80th anniversary of the birth of living composer George Crumb in the second concert of a two-day festival at White Hall.</p><p>Born in West Virginia in 1929, Crumb is one of the most unique and influential voices of the last 50 years.</p><p>The performance opened with &ldquo;Three Early Songs,&rdquo; written in 1947 when the composer was a teenager. Soprano Denise Knowlton sang with a rich, powerful voice that was occasionally pushed a little too hard.</p><p>The three songs were rather tonal and conservative, but quite lovely, with accompaniments that seemed influenced by impressionist composers. Knowlton&rsquo;s opening and closing notes on &ldquo;Night&rdquo; were not secure &mdash; they were under pitch. The second song, &ldquo;Let It Be Forgotten,&rdquo; also suffered intonation problems, particularly to the text &ldquo;as a fire.&rdquo; Knowlton shone in the final song, &ldquo;Wind Elegy.&rdquo;</p><p> Pianist Brendan Kinsella was marvelous throughout the set, displaying convincing tonal colors, impressive technique and incisive rhythms.</p><p>Guitarist Brendan Bondurant and percussionist Andrew Fritz presented a five-movement work called &ldquo;Mundia Canis&rdquo; (&ldquo;A Dog&rsquo;s World&rdquo;). Composed in 1998, the piece musically represents Crumb&rsquo;s five canine companions. Bondurant and Fritz convincingly performed the difficult and humorous work.</p><p>The highlight of the evening was one of Crumb&rsquo;s best-known works, the 1971 &ldquo;Vox Balaenae&rdquo; (&ldquo;Voice of the Whale&rdquo;). The composition worked well for a Halloween night concert since Crumb required the performers to wear masks. More theatricality was added by turning off all lights but those used by the performers.</p><p>Pianist Kinsella, flutist Jonathan Borja and cellist Ben Gitter displayed full control of the challenging score. In addition to playing their instruments, they were called upon to sing, whistle, hum and play percussion.</p><p>Cellist Alice Huang exhibited a remarkable balance of lyricism and technical skill in Crumb&rsquo;s &ldquo;Sonata for Solo Cello&rdquo; of 1955.</p><p>The concert concluded with an outstanding performance of the 1979 &ldquo;Apparition,&rdquo; featuring soprano Ida Nicolosi and Kinsella as pianist.</p><p>Nicolosi&rsquo;s lovely voice and sure intonation successfully sustained very difficult rapid runs and extraordinarily large leaps. Kinsella once again was imposing with his fine keyboard technique. He also exhibited impressive work inside the piano, plucking, striking and pounding on the strings.