The North Carolina School of the Arts has appointed Lawrence Dillon as Dean of the School of Music, effective July 2003.

Dillon's duties will include serving as Artistic Director of the Illuminations Festival, a five-week summer arts festival on Roanoke Island, as well as Managing Director of the Fletcher Opera Institute.

The North Carolina School of the Arts is comprised of five art schools in Dance, Design and Production, Drama, Filmmaking and Music. The School of Music, which offers graduate and undergraduate degrees as well as high school diplomas, will be moving into a brand new complex, including Watson Chamber Music Hall, this Summer. Visit them online - http://www.ncarts.edu/.

Lawrence Dillon's music is being premiered and performed across the United States in the coming months, including:

"WRIGHT FLIGHT" PREMIERE AT 2003 ILLUMINATIONS FESTIVAL - The 2003 Illuminations festival of the arts has commissioned Lawrence Dillon to compose "Wright Flight - A Symphonic Narrative," to celebrate the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk. The work seamlessly blends an original orchestral composition with live narration and historic photographs projected on a film screen. Through the Wrights' own words and photographs, audiences experience the drama, excitement and triumph of learning to fly.

Three narrators' voices retell the perspectives of Wilbur and Orville Wright as well as John T. Daniels, a member of the Kill Devil Hills Lifesaving Station who was an important figure in the drama of the first flight. The script is based on the actual events, and the Wright brothers' text comes directly from their letters and journals.

"Wright Flight" is part of the five-week "illuminations" Summer Performing Arts Series, held June 24 through July 26 at Roanoke Island Festival Park on North Carolina's fabled Outer Banks. Performances of "Wright Flight" will take place on July 1, 2 and 3. The orchestra will be led by Robert Franz, Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra.

For more information on Illuminations, Wright Flight and Lawrence Dillon, visit here.

BROYHILL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM DILLON'S "DEVOTION" - Flutist Linda Chesis will be joined by violinist Gil Morgenstern, violist Nardo Poy and cellist Darrett Adkins in a performance of "Devotion" in the 2003 Appalachian Summer Festival. The festival takes place in the peaceful highlands of Boone, North Carolina.

"Devotion," a seven-minute theme and variations, has been recorded on the Albany label by flutist Ransom Wilson with the Borromeo String Quartet. The performance will take place on July 22nd.

DAEDALUS STRING QUARTET TO PREMIERE DILLON'S 2ND QUARTET - The Daedalus String Quartet, Grand Prize Winner of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition, will premiere Lawrence Dillon's "String Quartet No. 2: Flight" on tour in the 2003-04 season.

Finalists in the Naumberg Chamber Competition, the Daedalus String Quartet was formed at the Marlboro Music Festival in the summer of 2000. The members hold degrees from Juilliard, Curtis the Cleveland Institute and Harvard University.

Dillon's first string quartet, a study of the Classical scherzo, was premiered and recorded by the Mendelssohn String Quartet on the Albany Records label. His second quartet is comprised of six fugues, each exploring a different aspect of flight.

For more information on Lawrence Dillon's "String Quartet No. 2: Flight," visit here.

INDIANAPOLIS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM "AMADEUS EX MACHINA" - The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, led by music director Kirk Trevor, will include Lawrence Dillon's "Amadeus ex Machina" in its 2003-04 season. Composed in 2001, Amadeus ex Machina is a whimsical re-imagining of Mozart's 40th Symphony from the perspective of a sophisticated — but somewhat disoriented — machine.

The London Masterprize panel of judges has awarded the piece a special commendation in the 2003 competition. Over 800 works were submitted. "Amadeus ex Machina" was also chosen as the contemporary piece for the 2002 Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, which took place in Kharkov, Ukraine.

For more information on "Amadeus ex Machina," visit here.

A new recording of Lawrence Dillon's chamber music, featuring performances by flutist Ransom Wilson along with the Cassatt, Borromeo and Mendelssohn String Quartets, has been released on the Albany label. The recording includes "Furies and Muses," for bassoon and strings, "Devotion" for flute and strings and "Jests and Tenderness" for string quartet.

American Record Guide called it "lovely ... austere ... vivid and impressive." CVNC cited the recording as "delightful and engaging ... inventive and skillfully scored ... fascinating and imaginative." In NewMusicBox, Amanda MacBlane commented on a "pure mode of expression that layers lines so gracefully they seem to play themselves with an energetic fervor. Dillon's painterly style carefully colors phrases with glissandi and subtle accents underneath an intricate tapestry of sound."

For more information on the new CD, including sound samples and reviews, visit here.

For more information about Lawrence Dillon, including a bio, works, discography and much more, visit http://www.lawrencedillon.com/. For information about Albany Records Chamber Music of Lawrence Dillon release, visit here. You can also contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.