Other Minds: Boulez at 100 with Gloria Cheng & Ralph van Raat, piano

• Gloria Cheng, piano
• Ralph van Raat, piano

Pierre Boulez — Structures, Livre I (1a)
John Cage — Experiences No. 1
John Cage — Music for Piano (4, 12, 19)
Pierre Boulez — Prélude, Toccata, et Scherzo ("III. Scherzo")
Morton Feldman — Two Pianos
Magnus Lindberg — Play I
Pierre Boulez — Structures, Livre II (Chapitre 2)
Pierre Boulez — Courtes dérives à partir d'Éclat
Frank Zappa — Ruth Is Sleeping
Igor Stravinsky — Sonata for Two Pianos

Other Minds presents a celebration of the centennial of Pierre Boulez, comprising an inventive concert of music for two pianos played by Gloria Cheng and Ralph van Raat at Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 7pm. The duo will perform selections from the composer's rarely heard two-piano masterpieces, Structures, Books I and II, plus a solo work, Courtes dérives à partir d'Éclat, which Boulez wrote for Gloria Cheng as a wedding gift.

The program also includes music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Frank Zappa, and Magnus Lindberg, concluding with Igor Stravinsky's elegant neo-classical masterwork Sonata for Two Pianos.

This concert is presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.

The eminent French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (March 26, 1925–January 5, 2016) played a leading role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s. He went on to play an important role in the field of electronic music, founding the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM) in Paris in the 1970s. Boulez began his first conducting post in 1958 with the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden, West Germany and served as principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (1971–75) and the New York Philharmonic (1971–77). This program highlights both Boulez's own compositions, as well as his profound impact on the leading composers of 20th-century music.

About Other Minds

Other Minds is dedicated to the encouragement and propagation of contemporary music in all its forms through concerts, recordings, broadcasts, audio preservation, and public discussions that bring together artists and audiences of diverse traditions, generations, and cultural backgrounds.

https://www.otherminds.org/

About Gloria Cheng, piano

https://www.gloriachengpiano.com/

About Ralph van Raat, piano

https://ralphvanraat.com/