Fifth Inversion Concert - The Ligeti Reimagined Project

Open to all at no cost

Time and Location

Concert Program

  • Filigree for oboe, clarinet and bassoon by Adam Billings
  • Musica Ricercata by György Ligeti (arr.Adam Billings)

The Ligeti Reimagined Project

György Ligeti’s famous 1953 wind quintet, Six Bagatelles is an arrangement that he made for winds from his solo piano work, Musica Ricercata that he composed in 1951. Ligeti only arranged six out of the eleven original movements from his piano piece for wind quintet. Musica Ricercata is a fascinating work that represents one of the first times Ligeti steps away from writing in a traditional style. Ligeti confined himself to only certain pitch classes in each movement, with each subsequent movement having exactly one more pitch class than the last. Movement I focuses on pitch class (A) only adding a (D) for the last note of the piece and by the eleventh movement he uses 12 pitch classes.

In 2019, Fifth Inversion commissioned New York composer, Adam Billings to arrange the other 5 original movements of Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata for wind quintet. The project was forced to pause during the pandemic, but was recently premiered at the 2022 International Double Reed Society Convention in Boulder, Colorado.

Free music arrangements

Adam Billings has so graciously offered his arrangements of the missing 5 movements for free to any wind player interested. Contact Adam

Programming change

Due to scheduling conflicts, Fifth Inversion’s regular flutist, Lisa McCarthy and horn player, Gustavo Camacho could not attend the IDRS conference so the project continued with guest artists Kimberley Breilein on flute and John Turman on horn. We are delighted to have them join us for this concert at WWU.

Kimberley Breilein, flute

Kimberly standing holding a flute, wearing a formal dress and a friendly smile

Saratoga Chamber Orchestra

Pacific Northwest Opera

John Turman, horn

John holding a french horn on his lap. His elbow rests on one leg and his chin rests on that hand.

Seattle Symphony

University of Washington

Disability Accommodations

For disability accommodations, please contact the department presenting the event. Disability access information is available online at Parking Services, and further resources can be found by contacting Western's Disability Access Center.