ChamberMusic@CSUN: TEMPO Ensemble – Daniel Kessner at 80 Celebration
February 1 at 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
$10 – $22
TEMPO Ensemble
Daniel Kessner at 80 Celebration
Conductor – Flutist – Composer
February 1st, 2026 at 7:30 pm Shigemi Matsumoto Recital Hall, $10 – $22
Daniel Kessner – Enchanted Garden
Daniel Kessner – Poles Apart (world premiere)
Daniel Kessner – Imaginary Temple
Andrew List – The Dignified Heart
Wenbin Lyu – Duck and Roll
Christopher Jessup – Suite for Viola and Piano
ChamberMusic@CSUN is sponsored by the Colburn Foundation.
TEMPO is a new music ensemble based in Los Angeles and comprised of flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion. The group routinely performs premieres and recently composed works in addition to standard works of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This concert is a special one, celebrating the 80th birthday of Daniel Kessner, one of the founding members of TEMPO. Dan is professor emeritus of music at California State University, Northridge.
Composer-flutist-conductor Daniel Kessner received his Ph.D. with Distinction at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1971, studying with Henri Lazarof. His more than 140 compositions have received over 800 performances worldwide, and 28 works are recorded commercially. Most of his scores are available from Theodore Front Musical Literature at tfront.com.
Kessner’s most important awards include the Queen Marie-José International Composition Prize in Geneva (1972), a 2003 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to lecture and perform at the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Germany, a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to perform and lecture in Trondheim, Norway in 2007, and similar residency at the Universidade do Minho in Portugal in 2011.
He is now Professor Emeritus at California State University, Northridge, retired after a career of 36 years teaching composition and music theory and directing various ensembles from 1970 through 2006.
As a flutist, he has given flute-piano recitals with his wife, Dolly Eugenio Kessner, in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, El Salvador, England, Portugal, Norway, and the Czech Republic, and has performed in numerous chamber music concerts. He has appeared as a guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Black Sea Philharmonic of Romania, the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra, and more recently the Trondheim Sinfonietta, among others. He has been an Upbeat Live lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1983.
In the spring semester of 2006 he joined the faculty of the University of Hawaii on a one-semester appointment. In the fall of 2006 he accepted a similar position at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California. He enjoys an active career as a composer, conductor and flutist.
Ensemble Members
- Larry Kaplin, flute
- Daniel Kessner, bass flute
- Julia Heinen, clarinet
- Lorenz Gamma, violin, viola (on leave for this concert)
- Nancy Roth, violin, viola
- Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, cello
- Françoise Régnat, piano
- Daniel Kessner, conductor
TICKETS: $10 to $22
Can’t attend in Person? View LIVESTREAM
Shigemi Matsumoto Recital Hall (in Cypress Hall)
Suggested Parking via Kiosks, in CSUN Lot B1
