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CULTURE LAB LIC
Presents:
"The Illustrated Pianist"
MAY 29, 7PM
A Live, Free Event at The Plaxall Gallery
A Concert of Imaginative New Works for Piano and Visual Installation, Celebrating
Ray Bradbury's 'The Illustrated Man'.
This imaginative multimedia concert of all new piano works is inspired by the great
American author Ray Bradbury’s timeless novel The Illustrated Man, in celebration of Bradbury’s 100th birthday in 2020.
Featuring 9 brilliant pianists who double as performers and composers, Anthony de Mare, Geoffrey Burleson, Jed Distler, Kathleen Supové, Sarah Dutcher, Thomas Feng, Mariel Mayz, Adam Tendler, and Nicole Brancato come together from different corners
of the professional piano world, unifying diverse styles in all new compositions that are inspired by the iconic stories in The Illustrated Man.
Together with a dynamic multimedia installation by visual artist Eve Nova, they craft something
truly special, much like the work of the distinctive author they honor.
Flyer Design by Eve Nova.
Made possible by our generous commissioners:
The Gaffigan Family
Marita Haggerty
Anthony S. and Georgine E. Brancato
Dr. Salvatore and Mrs. Annamaria Brancato
Carol Paster
Rachel Paster
Dr. Ashmed and Mrs. Lourdes Vazquez
Dr. Eduardo Perez and Marivel Torres
Xerxes and Grazia Herrington
Presents:
"The Illustrated Pianist"
MAY 29, 7PM
A Live, Free Event at The Plaxall Gallery
A Concert of Imaginative New Works for Piano and Visual Installation, Celebrating
Ray Bradbury's 'The Illustrated Man'.
This imaginative multimedia concert of all new piano works is inspired by the great
American author Ray Bradbury’s timeless novel The Illustrated Man, in celebration of Bradbury’s 100th birthday in 2020.
Featuring 9 brilliant pianists who double as performers and composers, Anthony de Mare, Geoffrey Burleson, Jed Distler, Kathleen Supové, Sarah Dutcher, Thomas Feng, Mariel Mayz, Adam Tendler, and Nicole Brancato come together from different corners
of the professional piano world, unifying diverse styles in all new compositions that are inspired by the iconic stories in The Illustrated Man.
Together with a dynamic multimedia installation by visual artist Eve Nova, they craft something
truly special, much like the work of the distinctive author they honor.
Flyer Design by Eve Nova.
Made possible by our generous commissioners:
The Gaffigan Family
Marita Haggerty
Anthony S. and Georgine E. Brancato
Dr. Salvatore and Mrs. Annamaria Brancato
Carol Paster
Rachel Paster
Dr. Ashmed and Mrs. Lourdes Vazquez
Dr. Eduardo Perez and Marivel Torres
Xerxes and Grazia Herrington
“Piano virtuoso” (The Daily Gazette) NICOLE BRANCATO has crafted an imaginative career guided by her distinct artistic vision.
An award-winning interdisciplinary musician, her extensive professional experience includes performing, improvising, composing, teaching, and collaboration across the arts. Her endeavors have taken her across America and Europe, appearing in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, and the 92Y, as well as the cutting-edge “underground” performance spaces in New York City and on New York Public Radio.
https://nicolebrancato.com/
An award-winning interdisciplinary musician, her extensive professional experience includes performing, improvising, composing, teaching, and collaboration across the arts. Her endeavors have taken her across America and Europe, appearing in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, and the 92Y, as well as the cutting-edge “underground” performance spaces in New York City and on New York Public Radio.
https://nicolebrancato.com/
Anthony De Mare
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Anthony de Mare is one of the world’s foremost champions of contemporary music. Praised time and again by The New York Times, his versatility over the past three decades has inspired the creation of over 75 new works by some of today’s most distinguished artists allowing him to develop a growing fan base that extends far beyond the traditional contemporary music audience. Known for his entrepreneurial performance projects over the years, he continues to expand the boundaries of the repertoire, which includes the speaking-singing pianist genre that he pioneered over 25 years ago. The Chicago Sun Times says “de Mare’s passion and vision almost radiate from the stage ... he causes all involved –composers, performer and audience members --to think about how music is made and how we listen to it.”
As creator, performer and co-producer of Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, this landmark commissioning and concert project has definitively brought the work of Stephen Sondheim into the concert hall, through the extraordinary re-imaginings of composers from across the musical spectrum. In addition to the Project’s acclaimed national, U.K., Canadian, and Australian tours, his recording of the first 36 pieces in the compendium, released by ECM’s prestigious New Series label, was cited on numerous “Best Of” lists in 2015 and was included as a winner of the 2016 Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year. In addition, Mr. de Mare was recently featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and on HBO’s documentary “Six by Sondheim”. The San Francisco Chronicle declared that “this irresistible new CD set — is a little short of breathtaking … many of the composers give de Mare plenty of opportunities for virtuoso showing off — which he grabs with gusto. The whole undertaking is a triumph.”
In honor of Sondheim’s 90th birthday in 2020, de Mare has extended the Project to include 13 new commissions under the title "Liaisons2020", bringing the total compendium to 50. Announced composers include Timo Andres, Jonathan Batiste, Jeff Beal, Mark Bennett, Christopher Cerrone, Ted Hearne, Stephen Hough, Meredith Monk, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Max Richter and Conrad Tao. A national tour will continue through 2021 with performances at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Ravinia, Williams College (Sondheim’s alma mater), Maverick Concerts, University of Iowa, Southern Oregon University, among others. Another U.K. tour is also in the works.
The adaptability of his programming to traditional classical, jazz and theater spaces speaks to the range of de Mare’s versatility. His performances over the years span five continents and his discography of over twenty recordings includes works by Ives, Cowell, & Harrison, Cage and Meredith Monk, Astor Piazzolla, Frederic Rzewski and many others. Since his debut with Young Concert Artists, his accolades and awards have included First Prize and Audience Prize at the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (The Netherlands) and The International Contemporary Piano Competition of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France). He gave his Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2005.
A Steinway Artist, he currently is Professor of Piano at Manhattan School of Music and New York University. He also serves as new music curator for the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in NYC.
https://www.anthonydemare.com/
As creator, performer and co-producer of Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, this landmark commissioning and concert project has definitively brought the work of Stephen Sondheim into the concert hall, through the extraordinary re-imaginings of composers from across the musical spectrum. In addition to the Project’s acclaimed national, U.K., Canadian, and Australian tours, his recording of the first 36 pieces in the compendium, released by ECM’s prestigious New Series label, was cited on numerous “Best Of” lists in 2015 and was included as a winner of the 2016 Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year. In addition, Mr. de Mare was recently featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and on HBO’s documentary “Six by Sondheim”. The San Francisco Chronicle declared that “this irresistible new CD set — is a little short of breathtaking … many of the composers give de Mare plenty of opportunities for virtuoso showing off — which he grabs with gusto. The whole undertaking is a triumph.”
In honor of Sondheim’s 90th birthday in 2020, de Mare has extended the Project to include 13 new commissions under the title "Liaisons2020", bringing the total compendium to 50. Announced composers include Timo Andres, Jonathan Batiste, Jeff Beal, Mark Bennett, Christopher Cerrone, Ted Hearne, Stephen Hough, Meredith Monk, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Max Richter and Conrad Tao. A national tour will continue through 2021 with performances at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Ravinia, Williams College (Sondheim’s alma mater), Maverick Concerts, University of Iowa, Southern Oregon University, among others. Another U.K. tour is also in the works.
The adaptability of his programming to traditional classical, jazz and theater spaces speaks to the range of de Mare’s versatility. His performances over the years span five continents and his discography of over twenty recordings includes works by Ives, Cowell, & Harrison, Cage and Meredith Monk, Astor Piazzolla, Frederic Rzewski and many others. Since his debut with Young Concert Artists, his accolades and awards have included First Prize and Audience Prize at the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (The Netherlands) and The International Contemporary Piano Competition of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France). He gave his Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2005.
A Steinway Artist, he currently is Professor of Piano at Manhattan School of Music and New York University. He also serves as new music curator for the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in NYC.
https://www.anthonydemare.com/
Kathleen Supové
Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists, known for continually redefining what it means to be a pianist/keyboardist/performance artist in today’s world. In addition to her compelling virtuosity, she is also known for her inventive ways of breaking down the wall between performer and audience. After winning top prizes in the Gaudeamus International Competition for Interpretation of Contemporary Music, she began her career as a guest artist at the prestigious Darmstadt Festival in Germany. Since then, Ms. Supové has presented solo concerts entitled The Exploding Piano, in which she has championed the music of countless contemporary composers.
“What Ms. Supové is really exploding is the piano recital as we have known it, a mission more radical and arguably more needed.”
Anthony Tommasini, NY Times“
This was classical music played like the best rock’n’roll. It was passionate, earnest, loud and more complex than the gatekeepers of high culture would like to think. Brava.”
– Ben Sisario, NY Press In May, 2012, Kathleen Supové received the ASCAP John Cage Award for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.”
http://www.supove.com/
“What Ms. Supové is really exploding is the piano recital as we have known it, a mission more radical and arguably more needed.”
Anthony Tommasini, NY Times“
This was classical music played like the best rock’n’roll. It was passionate, earnest, loud and more complex than the gatekeepers of high culture would like to think. Brava.”
– Ben Sisario, NY Press In May, 2012, Kathleen Supové received the ASCAP John Cage Award for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.”
http://www.supove.com/
Geoffrey Burleson: 2021 Extempore, for solo piano
Press Reviews
"Mr. Burleson played with command, projecting a rhapsodic quality without loss of rhythmic vigor...and an appropriate sense of fetching color. Burleson played vibrantly...ending his program with a compelling account of Boulez's formidably complex Piano Sonata No. 3."
- Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times "
Burleson gave an irresistibly supple reading of Liszt's "Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este", and in his performance of Debussy's "Pour le piano", the Sarabande was delightfully hazy, and the Toccata was an explosion of energy. He followed this with Saint-Saens's expansive "Caprice on Ballet Airs From Gluck's 'Alceste'" before closing the concert with three of his own virtuosic, lively, occasionally jazzy improvisations on a handful of Debussy themes."
-Allan Kozinn, The New York Times "
Both works (Charles Ives's 'Three-Page Sonata' and Vincent Persichetti's Sonata No. 12) are couched in complex rhythms, with attractively simple melodies sometimes swimming through them. And Mr. Burleson played them with the energy and passion of a jazz player at the densest moment of a solo. He brought a similar power, as well as an improvisatory imagination, to Frank Zappa's 'Bebop Tango.'"
- Allan Kozinn, The New York Times "
Burleson is a remarkable pianist, with tireless attack, unflagging rhythm and energy to burn."
- Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe "
A top-notch pianist...
Burleson's piquancy and poetry blended beautifully."
- The Washington Post
Sarah Dutcher
Sarah Dutcher is a solo and collaborative pianist, instructor, and composer living in New York City.
Alongside teaching a full studio of young students, she performs in a wide range of roles from opera accompanist to synthesizer player. She specializes in new works and has participated in several local and world premieres of new music. Her current projects include Due Signore with soprano Stephanie Granade and synthesizer duo Beyond Thyme. Her first solo release “Letters to the Afternoon” is available through Brooklyn label Soap Library.
https://sarahdutcher.com/
Alongside teaching a full studio of young students, she performs in a wide range of roles from opera accompanist to synthesizer player. She specializes in new works and has participated in several local and world premieres of new music. Her current projects include Due Signore with soprano Stephanie Granade and synthesizer duo Beyond Thyme. Her first solo release “Letters to the Afternoon” is available through Brooklyn label Soap Library.
https://sarahdutcher.com/
Adam Tendler
http://adamtendler.com/
Mariel Mayz
Mariel Mayz made her debut as a pianist with the Rockland Symphony Orchestra at the age of sixteen, and thereafter continued to perform in places such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Chamber Society at Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, the French Embassy in New York, Tenri Cultural Institute, Roulette, and many other venues. Mariel was named a Hunter College Concerto Competition winner, where she performed the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major under the baton of Reuben Blundell. Mariel is an avid performer of contemporary music and frequently premieres new musical works in concert alongside standard repertoire.
http://marielmayz.com/
http://marielmayz.com/
"Thomas Feng"
I am a pianist and composer, currently pursuing a DMA in Performance Practice from Cornell University.
As a performer I’m most often asked to play music by living composers, and take special joy in playing pieces by friends.
I’m drawn most to music that is highly notated, rhythmically or contrapuntally complex, sharply clever, and
not afraid to be sentimental – any or all of the above.
The music I have written lately is mostly for myself to play, though sometimes it is graciously picked up by others. I don’t usually write many notes, (somewhat by habit) tending toward a concentration of expression.
Through novel (“experimental”) means I try to write from a place of warmth, wit, and charm.
I also enjoy work as a music teacher, editor, accompanist, transcriber, and copyist.
Current interests include transcription, solitary music-making, music as a form of play, and difficulty.
https://youtu.be/ZXdMQogdhZg
https://www.thomasfengmusic.com/
As a performer I’m most often asked to play music by living composers, and take special joy in playing pieces by friends.
I’m drawn most to music that is highly notated, rhythmically or contrapuntally complex, sharply clever, and
not afraid to be sentimental – any or all of the above.
The music I have written lately is mostly for myself to play, though sometimes it is graciously picked up by others. I don’t usually write many notes, (somewhat by habit) tending toward a concentration of expression.
Through novel (“experimental”) means I try to write from a place of warmth, wit, and charm.
I also enjoy work as a music teacher, editor, accompanist, transcriber, and copyist.
Current interests include transcription, solitary music-making, music as a form of play, and difficulty.
https://youtu.be/ZXdMQogdhZg
https://www.thomasfengmusic.com/
Jed Distler
“A witty, genial and adventurous pianist and composer”
New York Times
“The Downtown Keyboard Magus”
The New Yorker
“A fearless musician of great talent, and a wonderful example of how to live a life with music at the center of it. He takes on all composers, and we're all better off for it.”
Jim Luce, Concert and Radio Producer
“A musician with smoke coming out of his ears”
Independent Radio Station WFMU
“An altogether extraordinary pianist”
Newark Star-Ledger
Since moving to New York in 1978, Jed Distler has forged a singular, unusually multi-faceted composing career. He began studying composition at the Julliard Pre-College with Lawrence Widdoes and Andrew Thomas, and later as a Sarah Lawrence College undergraduate with Joel Spigelman and David Maslanka. Early experiences writing for small theater and dance groups played a key role in Jed’s creative development, along with his more than twenty years serving as musical director and guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence. In 1987 his first large-scale work, The Death of Lottie Shapiro (an evening length song cycle with four sopranos and piano featuring texts by his mother, the late Bette Feitelson Distler) was hailed by Michael Redmond in the Newark Star-Ledger as “as "a masterpiece, a song cycle without parallel in the serious music of contemporary America.
New York Times
“The Downtown Keyboard Magus”
The New Yorker
“A fearless musician of great talent, and a wonderful example of how to live a life with music at the center of it. He takes on all composers, and we're all better off for it.”
Jim Luce, Concert and Radio Producer
“A musician with smoke coming out of his ears”
Independent Radio Station WFMU
“An altogether extraordinary pianist”
Newark Star-Ledger
Since moving to New York in 1978, Jed Distler has forged a singular, unusually multi-faceted composing career. He began studying composition at the Julliard Pre-College with Lawrence Widdoes and Andrew Thomas, and later as a Sarah Lawrence College undergraduate with Joel Spigelman and David Maslanka. Early experiences writing for small theater and dance groups played a key role in Jed’s creative development, along with his more than twenty years serving as musical director and guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence. In 1987 his first large-scale work, The Death of Lottie Shapiro (an evening length song cycle with four sopranos and piano featuring texts by his mother, the late Bette Feitelson Distler) was hailed by Michael Redmond in the Newark Star-Ledger as “as "a masterpiece, a song cycle without parallel in the serious music of contemporary America.
Eva Nova
