The Symposium on Music and Art took place in May of 1955 . Visit this link to view a description of the event: http://hdl.handle.net/11209/11229 . The American premier of Edgard Varèse's "Deserts" closed the two day symposium.
Listen to a performance of his piece : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NREatwJWl4Q