Following up on yesterday’s report on the new recording Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan of chamber music performed by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT), I learned that pianist Dale Tsang has left E4TT to pursue other performance opportunities. One of those opportunities will take place this coming Friday under the auspices of the Ross McKee Foundation. To my chagrin I realize that I have lost touch with the Piano Talks recitals arranged by Executive Director Nicholas Pavkovic since my last report on the series in March of 2019.
As a result, I also failed to put out the word about the new Piano Break series, which was arranged to support Bay Area pianists who have lost performance opportunities due to COVID-19. The series was launched this past July 31 with a solo recital by Jeffrey LaDeur and has been taking place regularly at 5 p.m. on Friday evenings. Each program is live-streamed through YouTube, after which the video is saved for subsequent viewing. The “Piano Break Archive” Web page provides a summary of all participating pianists and the programs they prepared; and each entry has a hyperlink to launch the corresponding YouTube video.
Tsang will be the next pianist to give a solo recital in this series at 5 p.m. this coming Friday, October 2. Details have not yet been announced. However, the plan will be to present short works that will showcase give living Bay Area composers: Elinor Armer, David Garner, Allan Crossman, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Alden Jenks. Specifics will be presented on the Piano Break home page, including the URL for the YouTube live-stream. Following the performance, that video will be added to the archive.
[added 9/26, 1:05 p.m.:
Program specifics have now been provided. The title of Armer’s composition is “Promptu” (presumably a playful reflection in the “impromptu” genre. Crossman’s piece is entitled Street Suite, consisting of three movements named after streets in San Francisco, Montreal, and Berkeley, respectively. Frank draws upon her cultural background for “Barcarola Latinoamericana.” Jenks will contribute three short pieces, each of which seems to be playing on words as much as on the music: “Piano Ballads,” “Be That Way,” and “Tombeau De Gershwin.” Interleaved among these offerings will be three short pieces by Garner, “Bagatelle,” “Traveling Light,” and the the final selection of the program, “Spider Music.” Finally, the YouTube Web page for the live-stream of this program has now been created.]
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