DATE: 7:15 p.m. Feb. 4, 2011.

EVENT: New works by University of Michigan award-winning composers William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty (two of the most acclaimed contemporary American composers) will be performed by the University Symphony Band, directed by Michael Haithcock.

The new works will be among the featured compositions played during the band’s tour of China in May, part of a trip that is a significant step in U-M President Mary Sue Coleman’s strategic cultural exchange initiative with China.

The concert, free to the public, will begin at 8 p.m. preceded by a talk by Bolcom and Daugherty at 7:15 p.m.

Bolcom has reworked “Concerto Grosso” for the symphony band, featuring a “soloist” saxophone quartet. Meanwhile, Daugherty’s three-movement work, “Lost Vegas,” pays homage to “bygone days, when enormous neon signs punctuated the Las Vegas Strip,” he said. The three movements are titled “Viva,” “Mirage” and “Fever.”

Daugherty received Grammy nominations this year in the categories of “Best Classical Album” and “Best Orchestral Performance” for his “Metropolis Symphony/Deus ex Machina” album.

The concert will feature other works that the symphony band will perform on the China tour, including George Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” and three American marches: “The Melody Shop,” by Karl King; “Rolling Thunder,” by Henry Fillmore; and John Philip Sousa’s iconic “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the national march of the United States.

In addition to the pieces by Bolcom and Daugherty, the symphony band is currently rehearsing works by faculty composers Bright Sheng and Kristin Kuster of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Both works will premiere April 8 at Hill Auditorium, and also will be featured on the China tour repertoire.

PLACE: U-M’s Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University, Ann Arbor.

INFORMATION: For more about the upcoming symphony band China tour, visit www.music.umich.edu/china or www.music.umich.edu/muse/2010/fall/a-journey-east.html