Programs

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  • “American Ramble”: Solo piano works that trace almost ninety years of American music, from the much beloved (solo transcription) “Rhapsody in Blue” to works of Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Adams, Glass, and Bolcom. Rather than thinking of this as aimless meandering, however, one can muse over the little gems and big discoveries one makes on a long, scenic hike. 

  • “The War Years: 1939-1945”: Solo piano works that present and compare the artistic endeavors represented by composers from three Allied countries. The “Piano Sonata” by Aaron Copland and the “Seventh Sonata” of Sergei Prokofiev, form the pillars of this program. Individual movements from the oft mystical, oft ecstatic “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” by Olivier Messiaen, offers a unique contrast to the works of the Frenchman’s American and Soviet counterparts.

  • Variations Playlist: The experience of a live piano performance has evolved and adapted to the ever-changing cultural norms of our society. Our 21st Century experience of music is largely influenced by the playlists we create for our personal tablets, computers, and phones. In a nod to that reality, this program excerpts and juxtaposes such sets of variation classics as Bach Goldberg Variations, Bernstein’s Touches, and Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes.

  • Folk/Jazz/Classics: This program assembles music that shows a cross-pollination among the styles of folk music, jazz, and classical music. Composers represented include Bartok, Debussy, Gershwin, Rachmaninov, and Bolcom.

  • Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach: Is there anything that has not yet been said and expressed in performances of this magnum opus over the last 270-plus years? Yet, it remains for many, myself included, the mountain yearning to be climbed. While many sets of variations lose their sheen and inventiveness with sheer repetition, this set, somehow, becomes newer with every hearing. This project has, for me, been three years in the making. I hope, by year four, after having presented these lovely works in smaller groupings, I can be ready for the marathon.