Iowa State University: World Premiere: Concerto for Wind Ensemble
Hive Mind (2025) at Iowa State University in Ames, IA
World Premiere: Sculpture Inspires Original Concerto at Iowa State University
AMES, Iowa — When internationally acclaimed artist Beth Lipman created Hive Mind, her monumental bronze and glass sculpture celebrating Iowa State University's legacy of innovation, composer and conductor Dr. Michael Golemo heard music. On Friday, February 13, University Museums and the Department of Music and Theatre present the world premiere of Golemo's three-movement concerto inspired by Lipman's art, performed by the 60-member Iowa State University Wind Ensemble at Simon Estes Music Hall.
The collaboration transforms Lipman's visual language into sound—what Golemo describes as intensely "colorful" music. Bronze becomes anvils, cowbells, and powerful brass evoking weight and permanence. Glass becomes triangles, bell trees, muted brass, and flutes suggesting transparency and fragility. The third movement captures the collaborative energy of the "hive mind" itself—the gathering and binding of knowledge that defines both Lipman's artistic process and Iowa State's research mission.
"This is a special tribute that should be colorful and dynamic," said Golemo, who is in his 27th year conducting at Iowa State.
The concerto was commissioned by University Museums in honor of Beverly and Warren Madden, whose combined 65-plus years of service to Iowa State shaped the modern university. Warren served as Senior Vice President for Business and Finance for 50 years, while Beverly was a faculty member and Iowa State's first university-wide Director of Career Planning and Placement Services. Both once clarinetists at Iowa State University, they are honored through featured clarinet solos woven throughout the concerto. In 2025, the Maddens endowed the Warren and Beverly Madden University Museums Director and Chief Curator position held by Pohlman.
Lipman, whose glass still-life compositions appear in collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Corning Museum of Glass, will speak briefly about her sculpture at the performance, and hear the musical interpretation for the first time alongside the audience. Her eight-foot Hive Mind sculpture, installed in the Anderson Sculpture Garden between Morrill Hall and Beardshear Hall, embeds clear glass objects representing Iowa State's past, present, and future within a bronze form referencing the round hay baler innovation developed by Iowa State professor Wesley Buchele in the 1960s.
Audiences can experience the full scope of Lipman's creative process at the exhibition Beth Lipman: Middle of the Story at the Christian Petersen Art Museum (1017 Morrill Hall), open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through February 13, with extra hours 6-7:30 p.m. on the evening of the concert. Nearby, Special Collections and University Archives will soon open a complementary exhibition at Parks Library featuring the archival materials that inspired Lipman's research. A Hive Mind maquette will be displayed in the Simon Estes Music Hall lobby, and a reception will follow the performance.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Parking is available at the Memorial Union Parking Ramp on Lincoln Way, immediately east of Simon Estes Music Hall. For more information, visit museums.iastate.edu.