At 22, Nick White had a composer's dream come true this past weekend in a pair of concerts devoted entirely to his music, with a group of fine musicians giving it a committed performance. And White's work lived up to the challenge, starting with his Michael Jackson tribute that opened the program, a touching string arrangement of She's Out of My Life.

I caught the Friday concert at the Studio at 620, which drew a good turnout for a varied program that included eight pieces by White, readings of some of his poetry and a short film with a score by him. Probably the most demanding piece on the program was his setting of Jack Kerouac's poem, Long Dead's Longevity, broken up into five songs. Soprano Dawne Eubanks sang with heavy, dramatic flair, strongly backed by double bassist Jim Petrecca and violist Michael McClelland. At the end of the first song, you could hear a dog barking outside. Kerouac would have liked that.

There was a good, old-fashioned beat quality to the evening, with the musicians dressed all in black, Kate Castonguay periodically reciting some of White's poetry and the composer pitching in as a stagehand. Cellist Grace Juliano gave a decisive, expressive performance of The Twin "Yorke'' Sketches, two pieces inspired by Radiohead. White saved his largest and most accomplished work for last, Jazz Variations on a Theme by Johannes Brahms, a sextet that combined inexorable blocks of sound with the downbeat verve of a New Orleans funeral march.