Free Concerts: Piano Synergy Festival
Ebb & Flow Arts and Maui Institute for Modern Music present the Piano Synergy Festival, two free concerts of 20th and 21st century works for multiple pianos and other instruments, as well as open rehearsals, commissions, publication and recording.
On Friday, July 29, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., E&FA will present Premieres for Two Pianos at Seabury Hall’s A‘ali‘ikuhonua Creative Arts Center, located at 480 Olinda Road above Makawao. A pre-concert discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m.
The program will include the world premieres of visiting composer Sarn Oliver’s Dodici Tono Barolo for two pianos, and Pelarin Bacos’s Prelude and Groove for two pianos.
Both works are the result of E&FA commissions. Both composers will be present. Bacos will perform in his work.
In addition, there will be Hawai‘i premieres of Dialog, works for two pianos by Dina Koston, Arthur Berger’s Three Pieces for Two Pianos, which features Cage-inspired prepared piano, and Pulitzer Prize-winning George Walker’s Music for Two Pianos.
Dr. Walker has served as E&FA’s honorary president since 2004.
Two modern classics, Aaron Copland’s El Salon Mexico (arranged for two pianos by Leonard Bernstein), and Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto for Two Pianos complete the program.
Pianists include Adam Tendler, who has performed three times for E&FA. Tendler is well-known on Maui, as a “modern-music evangelist” (Time Out New York) who “has managed to get behind and underneath the notes… living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all….”
Other pianists include Joan Forsyth, Pelarin Bacos (Maui) and Robert Pollock (Maui, E&FA executive director), “a pianist with no lack of temperament” (Michael Redmond, Newark Star Ledger).
On Sunday, July 31, at 4 p.m., E&FA will present Five Pianos and More! at the Maui Music Conservatory on the second floor of Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center, 275 W. Ka‘ahumanu Ave. in Kahului.
Included on the program are Earle Brown’s Corroboree for three pianos and Morton Feldman’s Five Pianos. Special video with this lengthy work will be provided by Peter Swanzy.
The program also includes solos and duos: Charles Wuorinen’s Sonata for guitar and piano, commercially recorded twice by husband-and-wife team, Anderson and Forsyth; Claude Ballif’s Solfeggietto #3 for violin, recently recorded for E&FA’s MIMM label by Jang; Robert Pollock’s Romance-Fantasy for guitar and piano, dedicated to Anderson and Forsyth; Bela Bartok’s Three Etude for piano as interpreted by Adam Tendler; Emil Awad’s Fouad for solo guitar, and others.
Dr. Awad is director of FIC modern music festivals in Jalapa, Mexico.
Performers include pianists Tendler (NYC), Joan Forsyth (NY), Marti Kluth (Kīhei), Pelarin Bacos (Pukalani), Pollock (Kēōkea), guitarist William Anderson (NY) and violinist Ignace Jang (Honolulu), co-founder of E&F Ensemble in 2001, and concert master of Hawai‘i Symphony.
The festival also includes open rehearsals, recording sessions, commissions and publications.
“We will bring several of our wonderful off-island and Mainland musicians together in one place at one time for Piano Synergy Festival,” said Pollock. “This is the purpose, among others, of our Maui Institute for Modern Music.”
Major funding for Piano Synergy Festival is provided by Makana Aloha Foundation, Earle Brown Music Foundation and AHS Foundation.
More information is available online, by calling (808) 876-1854 or by emailing [email protected].
Adam Tendler. E&FA photo.
Iggy Jang. Hana Hou! Magazine photo.
Joan Forsyth. E&FA photo.
Pelarin Bacos. E&FA photo.
Sarn Oliver. EF&A photo.
EF&A photo.
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