MUSIC

The musical career of composer John Cage will be celebrated with a six-day festival and scholarly conference at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. The Feb. 22-27 event, marking Cage’s 75th birthday, will focus on the role the university played as an early patron of the electronic music pioneer in the 1950s. A new Cage composition, “Music for Four,” will have its world premiere Feb. 27 at a concert by the Arditti Quartet. Cage, whose 75th birthday was Sept. 5, will deliver one of the conference’s five major lectures. “This will be the first symposium to address the issue of the relationship of a major artist to an American university,” said conference director Neely Bruce, a Wesleyan music professor. “Throughout the 20th Century, universities have taken on an increasingly active role as presenters and patrons of the arts.”