Composer John Eaton has had an admirable career. And from the experience of Friday night’s concert at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, he has more music in him still.

Eaton has been a MacArthur Fellow, a prominent composer of what he termed “pocket” operas, and a teacher at the Universities of Chicago and Indiana. His most well-know composition is his opera The Cry of Clytaemnestra. Friday’s concert was presented by the New York Composers Circle, and was a celebration of Eaton’s 80th birthday earlier this year. This was a concert of all vocal music; a piece of formless juvenilia and a song from last year that each examined thoughts about death through poetry; and two quasi-liturgical ensemble pieces, Mass II and El divino Narciso.

Eaton’s style is refreshingly intuitive. No matter how much time and energy he spent in writing the pieces, they sound in the moment, almost improvised. His vocal writing tends to keep singers in the upper portion of their registers, and makes expressive use of dynamics and wordless vocal sounds and effects. Instrumental accompaniment is highly vocalized too, almost conversational, with quick phrases and little riffs filling in the spaces between.

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