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American George Crumb – 80 this year – is one of the most original, captivating and unpredictable composers of our time.

Following an acclaimed ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms concert devoted to his music in September, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra now dedicates a whole day to his life and work at London's Barbican on Saturday 5 December.

The composer himself plans to be present, making a rare visit to the UK from his native USA.

With two major concerts – including his Pulitzer Prize-winning work Echoes Of Time And The River and his Grammy Award-winning Star-Child – and a rich contextual offering of films, talks and events, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra's latest Total Immersion day promises to plunge audiences into the poetic and unique sound-world of this ground-breaking and inspirational composer.

Crumb is a sonic inventor and true pioneer. A composer who traces his musical heritage through the American experimental tradition of Charles Ives and John Cage, Crumb has worked to capture the sheer beauty and joy of musical sound. Regarded in some ways as the successor to American maverick composer John Cage, he turned his back on the dissonant, intellectually complex trends of post-war music and worked instead to recapture the sheer beauty and joy of musical sound.

There is often a haunting sense of the mystical and spiritual about his work, and he is often concerned with themes of time and space, man's self-destructive impulses and threatened catastrophic end.

The music is rich in references to composers such as Bach and Chopin, as well as a variety of non-Western music, and he is acclaimed for the beautiful sounds and delicate textures he creates with highly graphic, visually extraordinary scores.

Crumb's works are often hugely theatrical. Joanna MacGregor, for example, will sing, whistle and use her forearms, knuckles and fingernails for her performance of the piano cycle Makrokosmos (Volume 1), while in Echoes Of Time And The River players move about the stage.

His music is full of unusual combinations of instruments and unorthodox playing methods to get unusual, sometimes delicate timbres from them.

A particular highlight of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day is a rare performance of his Grammy Award-winning work Star-Child (1977). It calls for enormous forces consisting of four conductors, a children's choir, a male-voice choir (whose members also play handbells), soprano and trombone soloists, organ and enlarged orchestra (including eight percussionists playing more than 60 "instruments"). The work traces a blazing, inspired vision from apocalyptic darkness to redeeming light.

Star-Child is also the inspiration for an ambitious specially-commissioned participatory project for hundreds of dancers and musicians from Fulham Symphony Orchestra, Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham schools, Trinity Laban and COMA (Contemporary Music-Making for Amateurs). The project, devised and led by British-based American composer Stephen Montague, culminates in a large-scale foyer performance at the Barbican immediately preceding the main evening concert. Stephen Montague is also introducing several of the events and chairing some of the day's talks.

There is also a chance to hear the work which first gained Crumb international recognition in 1970 – Ancient Voices Of Children. Set to poems by his favourite Federico García Lorca, the work is scored for soprano, boy soprano and a highly unusual group of instruments, including mandolin, musical saw, amplified and toy pianos and a wide range of percussion, such as Tibetan prayer stones. Its drama and intensity, extremes of dynamics and instrumental colour, use of quotation and the almost over-the-top virtuosity of its bravura vocal parts promise to make this one of the highlights of the day.

Total Immersion – George Crumb features several films, including the world premiere of a new film by long-time collaborator and record producer David Starobin, which includes conversations with Crumb as well as performances. There is also a rare chance to see Robert Mugge's iconic Crumb film, from 1976, with demonstrations by Crumb of the exotic instruments and unusual effects that figure in his compositions, as well as scenes of him in his university teaching environment.

Among the artists joining the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra for the Total Immersion day are conductor Martyn Brabbins, pianist Joanna MacGregor, the Guildhall New Music Ensemble and soprano Claudia Barainsky.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 will broadcast the concerts.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra continues its Total Immersion series with a weekend devoted to Hans Werner Henze on 16 and 17 January 2010.

Full information can be found at: bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra.

Notes to Editors

10.30am Film and Talk
Cinema 2 – The Voice Of The Whale
Stephen Montague introduces the music of George Crumb, followed by Robert Mugge's film with performances of Crumb's Vox balaenae for three masked players, samples of the rural gospel music which has influenced him, demonstrations by Crumb of the exotic instruments and unusual effects which figure in his compositions, and scenes from his home and university teaching environment.
US, 1976, Dir. Robert Mugge, 54 mins

1.00pm concert, Barbican Hall
Guildhall New Music Ensemble/Richard Baker; Joanna MacGregor (piano)

Makrokosmos (Volume 1): Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac
A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979
Ancient Voices Of Children

Forearms, knuckles and fingernails, together with the pianist's vocal and whistling skills, are required to perform Crumb's first Makrokosmos volume from 1972. The composer encompasses the heavens using sounds available from a single piano. His Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979, a ‘holy tone-poem' for piano inspired by Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, is filled with transcendent echoes of ancient rituals and wild dances.

4.00pm Film, Cinema 2 – George Crumb: Bad Dog
World premiere of a new film celebrating Crumb's 80th birthday, featuring the George Crumb Ensemble with Crumb on percussion performing Apparition, movements from Mundus canis, Eine kleine Mitternachtmusik, Three Early Songs, and Sit Down, Sister.

The film also includes George Crumb in conversation with David Starobin.
US, 2009, Dir. David Starobin, 75 mins

6.00pm Talk, Mozart Room
Stephen Montague introduces the music in this evening's concert.

7.30pm Free Event, Barbican Freestage
The culmination of a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra Learning project inspired by Crumb's Star-Child.

8.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins, Matthew Coorey*, Benjamin Shwartz*, Nicholas Collon* (conductors); Claudia Barainsky (soprano); Helen Vollam (trombone); Trinity Boys Choir; New London Chamber Choir

Echoes Of Time And The River
A Haunted Landscape
Star-Child*

An orchestral concert featuring many of Crumb's most acclaimed and best-known large-scale works.

VB