Organized in Portland as a birthday tribute to the memory of composer Elliott Schwartz (1936-2016) and held just one day before what would have been Elliotts 84th birthday, this benefit concert is a tribute to the longtime professor at Bowdoin College, mentor and supporter of composers around the world, guiding spirit of the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, and widely-performed composer of challenging, theatrical, witty, deeply expressive music.
On January 18, 2020, at 7 pm, the Elliott Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project at the Portland Conservatory of Music will be presented with nine composers who have written new pieces for multiple pianos, to be performed in the practice rooms at the Portland Conservatory.
The concert also celebrates the Portland Conservatorys partnership with Steinway and the five pianos they have provided for the use of our teachers and students.
The nine composers from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Indiana have composed works to be performed by as many as nine pianists at the same time on the pianos in the conservatory 3rd floor practice rooms. Compositions by Philip Carlsen, Joshua DeScherer, Nancy Gunn, Josh Jandreau, Francis Kayali, Bill Matthews, Miho Sasaki, Michael Schelle, and Harold Stover will be performed.
Doors will be open and the audience will sit in the hallways, immersing themselves in a stereophony of sounds coming at them from many directions at once.
Admission is $20. All proceeds from the concert will benefit the Fall 2020 Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, an important showcase for new concert music in Maine. The Festival was directed by Elliott Schwartz until 2016.
Tickets here