Composers in Play V: Keyboard of Colors
$30 ($25 senior/arts worker; students free)
- Adam Sherkin, piano
- Robin Steitz, soprano
Zosha Di Castri — The Thinking Eye
Kotoka Suzuki — Hidden Voices
Kaija Saariaho — Ballade
Matthew Ricketts — Melodia
Matthew Ricketts — Swallow Songs for high soprano and piano (world premiere)
Adam Sherkin — Four Preludes: "Before the Gallows," Op. 38
Pianist/Composer Adam Sherkin presents Composers in Play: "Keyboard of Colors," featuring the piano music of Zosha Di Castri, Matthew Ricketts, and Sherkin himself. The late Finnish composer and Kaija Saariaho and Japaense-Canadian, Kotoa Suzuki are also highlighted on this program.
Kotoko Suzuki's Hidden Voices is a richly hued, neo-impressionist work that explores shadowy counterpoint and integrated resonances. Ricketts' balladic Melodia embraces a "narrante" sound-profile. In complement, his Swallow Songs (from 2014, on texts by Lauren Rogener), are given their world premiere in complete form, with new music champion, soprano Robin Steitz, at the helm.
Vibrant and intrepid composer, Zosha Di Castri, found a distinction and purpose at the keyboard early on in her output. Adam Sherkin performs the Canadian premiere of newest work, The Untellable Hour of Quiet, recently commissioned by Clare Longendyke, and inspired by Maurice Ravel’s Oiseaux tristes. Castri’s The Thinking Eye of 2006 is also played alongside and has been conceived around the following quote from Paul Klee:
"One day I must be able to improvise freely on the keyboard of colours: the row of watercolours in my paintbox."
Doors at 7:30pm, performance begins at 8pm. Reception to follow with complimentary bar.
This performance will also be livestreamed via the Piano Lunaire YouTube channel.
About Piano Lunaire
The Piano Lunaire is a contemporary classical music organization based in New York and Toronto, pursuing the presentation of artistic excellence in the 21st Century. The company’s portfolio is three-fold: we produce monthly full moonperformances, house a record label, and collaborate with the musical community at large, in capacity of both fundraising and pedagogical platform.
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