Piano Spheres: new piano sounds from Los Angeles
$30 door, $25 advance ($20 student/seniors 65+)
- Mark Robson, piano
- Ray-Kallay Duo
- HOCKET
Samuel Carl Adams — Selected works
Sarah Gibson — Selected works
Thomas Kotcheff — Selected works
Daniel Rothman — Selected works
The inimitable 28-year-old Los Angeles concert series Piano Spheres—founded 28 years ago in Los Angeles by pianist, scholar, teacher, and new music champion Leonard Stein—presents new music from Los Angeles-based composers for piano, toy piano, and microtonal keyboards. The concert features innovative pianists Mark Robson, Ray/Kallay Duo, and HOCKET performing works by Nina Shekhar, Samuel Adams, Sarah Gibson, Thomas Kotcheff, and Daniel Rothman, among others. Piano Spheres is both a musical collective and a presenting organization that has been presenting innovative new music for the piano for over 28 years. While all individual artists have performed in New York before, this is Piano Spheres' first ensemble performance in New York.
"If the piano is the composer's instrument, then Piano Spheres is the composer's dream" —San Francisco Classical Voice
"helping to expand and update the existing solo piano repertoire and offer needed encouragement to young composers." —LA Times
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.
About Piano Spheres
Piano Spheres was founded in 1994 by pianist and scholar Leonard Stein, to present the best of contemporary piano music as well as rarely heard treasures from centuries past. Stein, a protégé of Arnold Schoenberg and founding Director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, was a champion of new music for more than sixty years as pianist, scholar, teacher, and presenter, both in Los Angeles and abroad. He hand-selected four of his most adventurous, new-music-minded former students from the University of Southern California – Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray, Mark Robson, and Susan Svrček – to mentor as his colleagues in a unique cooperative venture: a concert series presenting five solo piano recitals programmed by each of the five pianists, all of whom share a fierce dedication to new and unusual music. On September 13, 1994, marking the 120th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth, Piano Spheres presented its first concert. Since then, it has continued to combine the highest musical standards with a passionate commitment to exploring the music of today, to create the piano repertoire of the future.
The passing of Leonard Stein in 2004 led to a decision to invite a distinguished guest pianist each season to program and perform one concert of the five-concert series, which draws audiences from throughout the region. Among these guest pianists have been composer-pianist Thomas Adès, Jeffrey Kahane, Kathleen Supové, Christopher O’Riley, Ursula Oppens, composer-pianist Terry Riley, Eric Huebner, Joanne Pearce Martin, Liam Viney, the Bugallo-Williams Duo, the Viney-Grinberg Duo, Aron Kallay, Steven Vanhauwaert, Nic Gerpe, Richard Valitutto, and HOCKET.
In 2019 PS added the dynamic piano duo HOCKET (Sarah Gibson & Thomas Kotcheff) as their first new core artists since 1994. HOCKET was recently named Best Chamber Ensemble, Best New-Music Ensemble, Best Discovery, and Best Streamed Performance by the San Francisco Classical Voice.
Critics have called Piano Spheres “A nourishing, lasting LA invention” and one of “our most imaginative, best-planned, courageous and stimulating concert series.” Perhaps the LA Times said it best: “Clearly, Piano Spheres is intent on promoting new musical piano culture, not only by affording a handful of L.A.’s finest [pianists] a regular showcase, but also helping to expand and update the existing solo piano repertoire and offer needed encouragement to young composers.”
To date, Piano Spheres’ core artists and renowned guest artists have presented 830 works for piano by more than 300 composers from across the globe, of which 92 are women and 254 are American. These works include solo, duo piano, piano chamber music, and piano vocal music, comprising 126 premieres, 44 of which were commissioned by PS itself. Past performances are presented both on our website and the PS YouTube channel (YouTube/Piano Spheres).
The Piano Spheres core artists are determined to mentor and spotlight the next generation of concert pianists. Through the well-received Emerging Artist Series (formerly Satellite Series), now in its fifth season, PS core artists guide younger L.A.-area pianists in commissioning, interpreting, and performing new works for the piano. Public workshops, featuring the Piano Spheres artist, the emerging artist, and the commissioned composer, are held prior to the artist’s performance. Working to develop new audiences and new sources of funding, the board authorized Friends of Piano Spheres to initiate free “Artists Salons” in private homes, open to the public. Each artist selects a topic within the new music field, addresses the audience, performs examples, and takes questions. This model has proved so popular that we are planning to offer the salon model to college and university campuses.
Piano Spheres artists have performed in Minimalist Jukebox at the LA Philharmonic as part of the LA Philharmonic’s “California Project” festival and “Noon to Midnight”; in a series of four yearly recitals at Boston Court Theater, Pasadena; and for the UCLA Music Library Tribute to Leonard Stein in Schoenberg Hall.
https://pianospheres.org/About Ray-Kallay Duo
Pianists Vicki Ray and Aron Kallay have given hundreds of world premieres in Los Angeles and across the country. Mark Swed of the LA Times called them "Exquisite. Every sound sounded considered, alive, worthy of our wonder," when they premiered John Cage's The 10,000 Things in 2012.
The Ray-Kallay Duo is dedicated to expanding the sonic possibilities of the multiple keyboard concert, often using two acoustic grands, two keyboards, or combinations of both. In redefining the 21st-century piano duo, they also frequently include live electronics and alternate tuning systems in their programs. Their repertoire ranges from icons of the genre to newly composed works crafted specifically for their unusual and special resources.
In addition to their thriving solo and chamber careers, Vicki and Aron are also music educators in Southern California: Vicki is Head of Keyboard Studies at the Herb Alpert School of Music (CalArts), while Aron teaches music technology, theory, and piano and the University of Southern California (USC), Pomona College, and Chapman University.
https://raykallay.com/About HOCKET
HOCKET is a cutting edge piano duo based in Los Angeles. Lauded as "brilliant" by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times and as an "adventurous young ensemble" by The New Yorker, members Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff are both pianist-composers dedicated to commissioning and performing contemporary music. They have performed in some of the most exciting festivals and venues across the country including The Bang on Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, MATA Festival in New York City, The Center for New Music in San Francisco, the Carlsbad Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Noon to Midnight" Festival. Together, they have premiered over one hundred chamber and solo works and have collaborated with the premier, new music ensembles Eighth Blackbird and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. They have performed concerti with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, USC Thornton Edge, Oberlin Sinfonietta, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. HOCKET has received grants from the Presser Foundation and The Earle Brown Music Foundation and has been a selected artist in Firebird Ensemble's Outstanding Young Artists Initiative and Eighth Blackbird’s Blackbird Creative Lab. HOCKET is a Piano Spheres core artist and a performing artist on the Schoenhut Piano Company Artist Roster.
http://www.hocket.org/