Diferencias, a composition written by Roberto Sierra, Cornell associate professor of music, will make its world premiere March 8 in a performance by the Cornell University Wind Ensemble under the direction of Mark Scatterday.

The free program will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Diferencias is part of a consortium commission project of wind ensembles from Cornell, Duke, Yale and Ohio universities and the State University of New York at Fredonia.

Sierra, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1992, came to prominence as a composer in 1987 when the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performed his first major orchestral work, Jœblio, at Carnegie Hall. Since then his works have been performed by the major orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and San Antonio and by the Kronos Quartet, the BBC Symphony, the National Symphony and at various festivals, including Wolf Trap.

He is a winner of several awards presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), recognize artists whose work is often performed without admission fees, such as in churches, schools and small concert halls.

One of Sierra's earlier works,Trio Tropical was lauded by critic Alex Ross, who wrote in The New York Times: "This Puerto Rican composer is a master of rhythm and atmosphere, gathering Caribbean, Latin American and jazz elements into a classical idiom rooted in Bart—k. In this new piano trio, these diverse sounds intersect within a keenly demarcated frame; the result is a sensuous, ever-shifting musical picture, poised between impression and rhythmic modernism."

Sierra's works have been released on Koss Classics, New World Records and other recording labels.

The Cornell Wind Ensemble also will perform Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments, Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat Major, Richard Rodney Bennett's Morning Music and a Scatterday arrangement of Giobanni Gabrieli's Jubilate Deo.