Morton Feldman Centennial Marathon: Day 1 of 2

There has been nothing quite like the music of Morton Feldman, before or since. A singular composer of works embodying a seemingly glacial stillness over long expanses of time, his writing for piano is particularly beautiful. Piano Spheres celebrates the centennial of one of the 20th century’s greatest composers with a marathon program stretching over two days in two venues. Major works to be performed include Crippled Symmetry, For Bunita Marcus, Patterns in a Chromatic Field, and much more. Among the featured highlights will be Piano and String Quartet, which was premiered 40 years ago in Los Angeles. Featuring all of the artists of Piano Spheres with special guests.

These concerts are FREE!

Morton Feldman Centennial Marathon

Sunday, January 11, 2026

THE WENDE MUSEUM
A-Frame Theater in the Glorya Kaufman Community Center
10858 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230

3:00 pm – Crippled Symmetry – Gloria Cheng, Jonathan Hepfer & Michael Matsuno
4:30 pm – Nature Pieces – Thomas Kotcheff
4:45 pm – Triadic Memories – Amy Williams
6:30 pm – Intermissions – Thomas Kotcheff
7:00 pm – Piano and String Quartet – Vicki Ray & The Eclipse Quartet

Monday, January 12, 2026

THE BRICK
518 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004

3:00 pm – Why Patterns? – Richard An, Rachel Beetz & Dustin Donahue
3:45 pm – For Bunita Marcus – Aron Kallay
5:15 pm – For John Cage – Vicki Ray & Andrew McIntosh
6:30 pm – Palais de Mari – Nic Gerpe
7:00 pm – Piano – Conor Hanick
7:45 pm – Patterns in a Chromatic Field – Todd Moellenberg & Erika Duke

Programs subject to change.
Doors open 2:30 pm both days.
All performances are free to the public, no ticket or reservation required.
Seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Piano Spheres Morton Feldman Centennial Marathon is made possible through the generous support of New Music USA, The Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Abby Sher, the Aaron Copland Fund, Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Amphion Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, the Perenchio Foundation, and the Culver City Arts Foundation.

Image credit:
Philip Guston “Friend — To M.F., 1978”
used by permission of the Des Moines Art Center

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PERFORMER BIOS

Richard An is a composer and performer born and raised in LA. He performs with stickytack (a piano+ duo), house on fire (a new music trio) and quartet friends (a 2pno 2perc quartet), and has performed with Monday Evening Concerts’ Echoi Ensemble and The Industry. Richard plays piano and percussion, and has been known to sing, conduct, and teach. His trio House on Fire is the Piano Spheres Emerging Artist this season.

Flutist Rachel Beetz plays “elegantly” (Washington Post) while “evoking the roar of prehistoric animals” (San Diego Union Tribune). You can hear her performances on Orenda, Blue Griffin, iikki, Neuma, OSO, Outside Time, and populist records.

Acclaimed by the New York Times for performances of “commanding technique, color, and imagination,” GRAMMY- and Emmy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng is a leading proponent of the music of our time. Over a varied and distinguished career, she has collaborated with renowned composers across the stylistic spectrum, premiering works by John Adams, Thomas Adès, Pierre Boulez, Anthony Davis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky, John Williams, and many others. Cheng is a founding member of Piano Spheres.

Dustin Donahue is a percussionist dedicated to contemporary chamber music. He is a member of the Partch Ensemble and Ruckus New Music, and he is a frequent guest with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Yarn/Wire. He is currently Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick taught at the California Institute of the Arts from 1984-2025, holding the Larry Levine Chair in Contemporary Music. She was a founding member of the LA-based new music ensemble, the California EAR Unit, from 1981-2008. She has performed throughout the US, Europe, Japan and New Zealand including the Tanglewood, Aspen, Ravinia, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals. Erika also served as principal cello and soloist with the Santa Fe Pro Musica (1992-98), and was a member of Bach’s Circle, with whom she performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, Sedona Chamber Music, and Chamber Music Northwest. She was a featured performer at the Dartington Summer Music Festival, The Ernst Bloch Festival, the Sospeso Chamber Series at Carnegie Hall, and the Ojai Festival. Her former students are among the leading specialists in contemporary music.

Winners of a 2025 Koussevitsky Commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation in the Library of Congress, a 2025 Fromm Foundation Commission and four 2023-24 San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Awards, the LA-based Eclipse Quartet (Sarah Thornblade, violin; Sara Parkins, violin; Alma Lisa Fernandez, viola; Maggie Parkins, cello) is an ensemble dedicated to the music of 20^th century and present day composers. The scope of their repertoire spans works from John Cage and Morton Subotnick to collaborations with the singers Beck and Caetano Veloso. The Quartet has performed frequently on both coasts and has participated in festivals such as the Look and Listen Festival in NYC, the Festival for New American Music in Sacramento, the Scarlatti Festival in Naples, Italy, the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, the Angel City Jazz Festival and the Hear Now Festival in Los Angeles.

Praised by the L.A. Times for his “illuminating” and “dazzling” playing, pianist Nic Gerpe has thrilled audiences locally and abroad. His performances have been described as “exceptional… possessing a kind of selfless clarity.” He has performed in venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Wallis Annenberg Center, and the Ojai Music Festival.  Gerpe is a member of Piano Spheres.

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old. A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Marcos Balter, and Samuel Carl Adams, whose piano concerto, No Such Spring, he premiered in 2023 with Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony.

Jonathan Hepfer is a percussionist, conductor, and curator. Since 2015, he has been the artistic director of Monday Evening Concerts and its resident ensemble ECHOI. He has directed projects at LACMA, Getty Museum, Pinault Collection, Hauser & Wirth, Jeffrey Deitch, the Brick and Harvard University. He has taught at CalArts and ArtCenter Pasadena.

Described by Over the Mountain Journal as a “modern renaissance man,” Aron Kallay‘s playing has been called “exquisite…every sound sounded considered, alive, worthy of our wonder” (LA Times).  His performances often integrate technology, video, and alternate tunings. Fanfare magazine described him as “a multiple threat: a great pianist, brainy tech wizard, and visionary promoter of a new musical practice.” Kallay is a member of Piano Spheres.

Thomas Kotcheff is a Los Angeles–based pianist and composer acclaimed as “dazzling” (LA Times). A leading advocate for contemporary music, he commissions and premieres new works, records landmark projects, collaborates widely, and curates exploratory recitals as a member of Piano Spheres.

Andrew McIntosh is a Grammy-nominated violinist, violist, composer, and baroque violinist who teaches at the California Institute of the Arts, with a wide swath of musical interests ranging from historical performance practice of the Baroque era to improvisation, microtonal tuning systems, and the 20th-century avant-garde. Originally from rural Northern Nevada, McIntosh is currently based in the Los Angeles area.​​

Michael Matsuno is a flutist who works at the intersection of performance, scholarship, and experimental music-making. His activities range from solo and orchestral performance to the study of human relationships to music and psychology. He is a lecturer at Chapman University and flute instructor at CalArts and LA Community Colleges.

Todd Moellenberg is a pianist and artist based in Los Angeles. He has performed with Piano Spheres, Monday Evening Concerts, Wild Up, Hear Now, Los Angeles Philharmonic, PARTCH Ensemble, The Industry, and actress Laverne Cox. His creative practice spans composition, video, poetry, and performance art, and he currently lectures and instructs piano at UC Riverside.

Described as “phenomenal and fearless,” Grammy nominated pianist Vicki Ray is a leading interpreter of contemporary piano music. Known for thoughtful and innovative programming which seeks to redefine the piano recital in the 21st century, Vicki’s concerts often include electronics, video, recitation and improvisation. She is a founding member of Piano Spheres.

The works of pianist/composer Amy Williams have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Wet Ink, International Contemporary Ensemble, Orpheus, pianist Ursula Oppens and soprano Tony Arnold. With the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, she has recorded six critically-acclaimed CDs for Wergo (Nancarrow, Stravinsky, Varèse/Feldman, Kurtág). She is Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh and Artistic Director of New Music On The Point.