Date and Time: Friday, June 12, 2015 @ 8 pm
Location: Bargemusic, Brooklyn (located at the Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge)
Tickets: $35 General Admission/$30 Seniors/$15 Students; tickets may be purchased at this link
Bargemusic’s Here and Now Series
Music for a New B’ak’tun for solo piano (with toy piano and electronics)
Program:
James Matheson Cretic Variations (2013) (NY Premiere)
Adam Schoenberg Picture Etudes (2013) (NY Premiere)
Tom Flaherty Part Suite-a (2013) (NY Premiere)
Airdancing (2013) (NY Premiere)
Peter Yates Finger Songs (2013) (NY Premiere)
Pianist Nadia Shpachenko will be playing two works composed for her by ACA composer Tom Flaherty at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, on June 12 at 8 pm. Both works, Airdancing and Part Suite-a, were recorded on Shapchenko's CD Woman at the New Piano, released by Reference Recordings in early 2015. Ms. Shpachenko is an active touring pianist, having performed this program over 35 times around the U.S. this year, and is associate professor at Cal Poly Pomona University. Shpachenko’s recital is part of Bargemusic’s Here and Now Series, which features cutting-edge music written by contemporary composers.
Airdancing is based on stunning videos of Felix Baumgartner’s recent jump from space, the second stage of a rocket falling from edge of space into the ocean, and people jumping off cliffs in wing suits -- all were in the back of the composer's mind in composing this piece. Many of the musical gestures fall or float. On the other hand, the pitches, rhythms and sounds of the music itself often turn to frenzied dance.
Part Suite-a scrambles elements familiar from Baroque suites and partitas with other musical flavors. The introductory Passacaglialude follows the usual form of a passacaglia, which is unified by a repeating bass line and series of chords. Here the seven-measure phrase consists of the same six-note chord throughout, in seven different voicings; the phrase gradually speeds up.
