Just completed JUMP – a piano solo, 7 minutes long, for Jenny Q. Chai, the charismatic young pianist in Shanghai. She asked me to write for her recital in Havana on October 7 – part of the Festival Leo Brouwer. An amazing lineup of artists and composers will be there – it’s very exciting to be part of it. And Jenny being the kind of pianist she is, JUMP has led me to new ideas. I can’t wait to hear what she makes of them!
Read more →Just about when the New York Philharmonic leave for Vail, that time of year arrives when I can start composing in earnest. I have more projects lined up than ever before – from small and simple to large and complex – with many enticing performances to announce too. Welcome summer!
Read more →Gamin. ETHEL. Mudang. Wow. When piri virutoso Gamin got together with string quartet ETHEL over my new piece for this Korean traditional bamboo oboe combined with Western strings, something truly special happened. They premiered the work at lovely Music Mountain on June 14, then went into the studio June 16 to record – and it just got better and better. Gamin now has a complete CD worth of works composed for her, and her improvisations with leading lights of NYC, and I can’t wait for it to come out! Meantime, check out a clip here.
Read more →
I’m thrilled with the release of the latest CD featuring my music. El Jaleo, which I composed for Yoonie Han, is among the lush Romantic works and transcriptions on her ravishing album Love and Longing. It’s now available for pre-sale. If you like Romantic piano, you will find nothing more fulfilling than this – all the way up to Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Liebestod. Big release party on May 20! Please see upcoming events right her on my website.
Read more →A happy time yesterday working with ETHEL, a quartet of remarkable individuals, great musicians with such personality. And to be part of their budding collaboration with the great Gamin, piri player? Together they played my sketches for a new piece called Mudang (=shaman) and tried lots of creative techniques. Exciting? Oh yes.
Read more →
