Piano Spheres is greatly saddened by the news of the sudden death of composer Shaun Naidoo and wishes to acknowledge him as a friend and creative collaborator for our series. His loss will be keenly felt by those who experienced the vitality and beauty of his compositions, the impact of his teaching and the wicked wit with which he negotiated the world. We express our sincere sympathy for all those whose lives were intimately touched by his presence as we pay tribute to his multi-faceted contributions to contemporary musical life in Los Angeles and in the international sphere. We bid you a loving farewell, Shaun…..

Piano Spheres commissioned-work to be premiered

Mark Robson will perform a piano recital on Tuesday, March 6 at 8:00 p.m. at Zipper Hall, Colburn School of Music in downtown Los Angeles. The recital includes the world premiere of Drive Through for piano and video by Los Angeles composer Bruno Louchouarn, which was commissioned by Piano Spheres, as well as works by renowned contemporary masters Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, Rodion Shchedrin, and Conlon Nancarrow. The international nature of the program rounds out with works by the American composer Frederic Rzewski plus the Swiss-Austrian composer – and Stockhausen pupil — Beat Furrer.

Robson, a founding member of Piano Spheres, has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a pianist with “one of the great techniques,” “an inquiring mind,” and a performer capable of evoking an “exquisite engulfing pastel haze.” He leads a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher and vocal coach.

The complete program includes:

Beat Furrer:  Drei Klavierstücke

Karlheinz Stockhausen:  Klavierstück V

Toru Takemitsu: Pause ininterrompue

Frederic Rzewski:  Side Show (“Squares” nr. 4)

Bruno Louchouarn:   Drive Through for piano and video (World premiere) [Piano Spheres Commission]

Rodion Shchedrin: 3 pieces – Poem, In the Manner of Albeniz, and Troika

Conlon Nancarrow:  Sonatina

Mr. Robson worked on the music staff of the Los Angeles Opera as a repetiteur and eventually as Assistant Chorus Master/Assistant Conductor. He often provided recitative accompaniment at the harpsichord for their productions and performed onstage in the role of virtuoso Boleslao Lazinski in Fedora. As a conductor he has appeared with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra and has assisted at the renowned festivals in Salzburg and Spoleto (Italy). He has served as a vocal coach on the faculties of the University of Southern California, the California Institute of the Arts, Chapman and Cal State Fullerton.

Robson began his musical pursuits at an early age, first as a pianist and later as a flutist and organist. He began to compose when he was nine. Subsequent studies culminated in degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Southern California, enhanced by several years studying the piano and Ondes Martenot in Paris. Among his teachers have been Lydia Frumkin, Yvonne Loriod, Alain Motard, John Perry and James Bonn. His talent has been recognized with several scholarships and awards; these include a prize in the International Piano Competition for Contemporary Music of St. Germain-en-Laye, the Corvina Cultural Circle Honorary Hungarian Award and the USC Master’s student Keyboard Departmental Award.

Tickets are $25 general, $15 students, and are available at www.pianospheres.com or at the box office the evening of the performance.

Founded by Leonard Stein, Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano. It expands the piano repertoire by commissioning new music and sustaining a concert series of the highest artistic quality that focuses primarily on pieces by contemporary composers.

Dressed in vibrant violet leggings and a black bodice with its strings dangling ostentatiously in front, the redheaded pianist Kathleen Supové suggests a kind of Lady Gaga without the stage entourage. Her program for Piano Spheres on Tuesday at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall was similarly striking and colorful.
For full review, click here.

Program notes for Piano Spheres guest artist, Kathleen Supové, are available by clicking here.

Vicki Ray’s latest recording, Morton Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet with the Eclipse Quartet –which they played on her piano recital last season– will be coming out on Bridge records in December (a great Christmas present idea?!)  Next Spring the recording of David Rosenboom’s Twilight Language (premiered also on Piano Spheres) will coming out on Tzadik. Check Vicki’s web site (www.vickiray.org) for further information.

Famed for her recital series, “Exploding Piano,” Kathleen Supové will present a program of works composed for her January 31, 2012 at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School.  Tickets are available through the Piano Spheres web site by clicking here.

Music review: Vicki Ray at Piano Spheres recital at Zipper Hall

November 16, 2011

One of the sure, reaffirming virtues of the long-running Piano Spheres recital series is its recurring promise of things new and unexpected. Tuesday at Zipper Hall, in her annual appearance in this context, contemporary music heroine Vicki Ray upped the freshness ante by stocking her entire program with world premieres, including a rare piece with Ray’s own name in the composer role. (read more)

Piano Spheres artist Mark Robson will perform the Brahms Piano Quartet with Paul Stein, violin, Aaron Oltman, viola, and John Walz, cello, on Nov. 30th at 7pm at the Arcadia Public Library.  In addition Stein and Walz will perform the Delius Concerto for Violin and Cello.  The concert is a part of the Classical Kaleidoscope Concert Series sponsored by the Arcadia Public Library Foundation.  Admission is free.

Following the concert, guests are invited to meet and speak with the musicians. No reservations are necessary but seating is limited to the first 150 people. Doors open at 6:30pm. Concerts begin at 7pm and usually end by 8:30pm. For more information, please call 626. 294.4808.

Arcadia Public Library
20 W. Duarte Rd.
Arcadia, California  91006

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

October 11, 2011

Pianist Vicki Ray to Perform Five Premieres in Piano Spheres Recital
(Program Notes)
On Tuesday, November 15 pianist Vicki Ray will open a “music box” of new works for piano by Amy Kirsten, Eric Guinivan, Daniel Corral, Linda Bouchard and Ray herself.  The recital takes place at 8:00 p.m. at Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School.

Each work is based upon myth, early music theory, a psychic pictogram, or a poem.  The pieces ask for the pianist’s voice as well as unusual piano techniques and electronics that explore various sound worlds, plus some use of musical vocabularies from India and Indonesia.

The full program of first performances is as follows:
Amy Kirsten: “speak to me”

Eric Guinivan:  “Bharata’s Music Box”

Daniel Corral: “Sigils”

Linda Bouchard: “Gassho”

Vicki Ray:  “The Waking”

Described as “phenomenal and fearless” Vicki Ray is one of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano music. She has recorded Feldman’s “Crippled Symmetries” and “For Christian Wolff” for Bridge Records, and a recording of Feldman’s “Piano and String Quartet” with the Eclipse Quartet will be released shortly. A long-time champion of new music, she has worked with some of the most prominent composers of our time, including figures as diverse as György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Oliver Knussen, Louis Andriessen, Steven Stucky, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon and Chinary Ung.

Ms. Ray has commissioned and premiered numerous works, running the gamut from established composers such as John Adams, Morton Subotnick, Stephen Hartke, David Rosenboom, Paul Dresher, Rand Steiger, Kamran Ince, Shaun Naidoo and Eric Chasalow among others – to emerging young artists such as Amy Kirsten, Daniel Wohl and Oscar Bettison.  Her concerts often include electronics, video, recitation and improvisation, challenging traditional conceptions of the piano recital.

Tickets are $25 general admission; $15 for students with valid ID.  They are available through the web: www.pianospheres.org; or at the box office one-half hour prior to the performance.  For further information call (323) 692-8075.

Founded by Leonard Stein, Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano. It expands the piano repertoire by commissioning new music and sustaining a concert series of the highest artistic quality which focuses primarily on pieces by contemporary composers.

#
(October 11, 2011)

Music review: Gloria Cheng opens Piano Spheres’ 18th season

By Rick Schultz

September 21, 2011

The late composer Luciano Berio called his small but potent book of Harvard lectures “Remembering the Future.” And that seemingly paradoxical phrase informed Gloria Cheng’s nearly all-British Piano Spheres program Tuesday night at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall. (read more)

I