Hello again, sorry for the long delay!
This event was more of a challenge than usual to coordinate, but thanks to the enthusiasm of Yifei Xu and the continued support of Julian Bennett Holmes, this is finally happening! A truly spectacular program has been chosen from the 300+(!!) submissions we received for this year’s piano recital. The quality of your compositions overwhelmingly surpassed our expectations. In general, combing through large amounts of new music always leads to exciting finds, but this group of submissions was exceptional in every sense.
Yifei Xu is a new piano music expert and was also impressed, and we really think you’ll enjoy the program she created. In Yifei’s words:
The idea of the entire program started from the piece Rodney Waschka II – Suite for Piano, after reading the program note, knowing that it regards to a patient-level meta-analysis septic shock treatment; whereas discovering the Three Lyric Pieces by Lawrence Kramer which is derived from Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, who died also from SEPSIS! What a coincidence! His fatal number 23, becomes his patient number, and playing only the 2nd and 3rd movement with the 2nd and 3rd order on the program. Ending with the piece inspired by Franz Schubert, but, a frozen one.
Definitely a wonderful coincidence! From the submissions, a very unique multimedia program has emerged, given that so many of the selections involve extended techniques and other special performance practices. This program really emphasizes the “Contemporary” part of our namesake, and we hope that you will tune in to Columbia’s livestream of the event. If you can’t make that, as always it’ll be on our YouTube channel shortly after the livestream. The concert will take place in late January, precise date pending.
Without further ado, the final selections for Yifei Xu’s recital “Answer! Please…” at Columbia:
1. Brian Field – Three Passions for our tortured planet – Movement 2
2. Jianing Yang – And dreaming is the end of reality days – Movements 1 & 2
3. Rodney Waschka II – Suite for Piano (Complete)
4. Paul Salerni – Pop Quiz #1 (Complete)
5. Clifton Callender – Meditations on a Warming Planet – Movement 1
6. Richard Derby – Fantasy
7. Joao Pedro Oliveira – ff(Frozen…) – Movement 3 “Frozen Franz”
8. Andrew List – “From The Temple of Dendera” – Movements Hathor, Anubis, and Sphinx
9. Lawrence Kramer – Three Lyric Pieces – Movements 2 & 3
Congratulations!
-NYCCMS
