Hooray for new music and hooray to the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library for hosting the third annual soundOn Festival of Modern Music, produced in conjunction with San Diego New Music. The festival takes place today, June 18, through Saturday, June 20, at the Athenaeum, 1008 Wall St., which for three days becomes a hot bed of what’s new. Why are people still frightened when they hear the words “new” and “music” in close juxtaposition? We asked composer/performer Christopher Adler, a co-founder of soundOn, pianist and composer-in-residence with NOISE, San Diego New Music’s resident ensemble, and a professor of music at University of San Diego. “Those two words got a bad name that’s not justified,” Adler said. “There’s quite a bit of new music going on here in San Diego,” he added, mentioning his own university, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and San Diego State, then giving credit to Steven Schick of La Jolla Symphony and La Jolla Music Society for their interest in and programming of new music. “SoundON is one of the only festivals of chamber music entirely dedicated to music that’s being written today,” he said. “Our main interest is to support younger composers, the work of more established composers whose works aren’t heard in other venues, and to keep the living branch of the classical tradition alive by promoting composers and giving them good performances.” Thursday and Friday begin with discussion and/or open rehearsals from 1 to 4 p.m. Performances follow in the evenings at 7:30, preceded by a 7 p.m. talk with the composers. Saturday features a workshop for young and old from 10 a.m. to noon that explores the art of performance making. This is followed by a free indoor lunchtime concert from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m., followed by composers and performers in dialogue from 2 to 4 p.m. The festival closes with a chamber music concert at 7:30 p.m. preceded by pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. NOISE Ensemble performs as do guest artists. Featured are works by Stuart Saunders Smith of Baltimore and Christopher Burns of Wisconsin. Winners of San Diego New Music’s 2009 competitive call for new scores were Jeff Herriott of Wisconsin; Stefan Weisman of New York; and Peter Swendsen, who teaches at Oberlin. Their winning works will be performed along with those of numerous others. “Smith and Burns work with what we call ‘complexity,’” said Adler, who pointed out there have been moments during which complexity as a musical genre came to the fore. “At the end of Bach’s life, for instance, he became interested in counterpoint that was quite complicated and difficult in terms of being a musical achievement — managing six-voice fugue with all kinds of inversions. It was also challenging from the standpoint of the performer. We had another of these moments in the 20th century, where composers are interested in managing larger amounts of information in smaller amounts of space.” Visit www.ljathenaeum.org or www.sandiegonewmusic.com or call (858) 454-5872 for information.