Lynn Schugren – The Voice of the Piano – Sunday, November 10 at 4 pm
The Voice of the Piano
Lynn Schugren, piano
Amy Beach 5 Improvisations, Op. 148
Louise Talma Sonata (1943)
Frances Brouwer Flight (2023) and Fear of the Deep (2023)
Miriam Gideon Sonata (1983)
Joan Tower Ivory and Ebony (2009)
Alexis Alrich The Caryatids (2024) World Premiere
Pianist Lynn Schugren has long been devoted to performing and promoting American music. She has premiered and commissioned many new works, including the 6 new etudes of George Perle, works by Frank Ahrold and Ken Durling, whom she commissioned to write The Dance of Shiva. She performed Eleanor Armor’s Thaw live on KQED’s West Coast Weekend and has been guest performer with new music on KPFA over the years. Her 2018 recital Made in America featured works by Bruce Nalezny, Miriam Gideon and Mark Vance as well as Barber’s Sonata. In 2020 she presented the Sierra Prelude Project, a group of 10 preludes by California composers celebrating the mountains, which was a multimedia production with image and text chosen but each composer. In 2022 she presented Treasures of the Mother Lode, with works by Terry Riley, Durwynne Hseieh, Dennis Lauderdale, and Mark Vance. Most recently, in 2023, she was joined by the InConcert Sierra Orchestra in the World Premiere performance of Alexis Alrich’s Sierra Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, a piece she commissioned.
The Voice of the Piano presents a spectrum of American styles, from the lush early 20th century sounds of Beach’s Improvisations and the angular modern Talma sonata, to the Impressionistic and atonal Gideon Sonata and the showcase toccata by Tower, Ivory and Ebony. The two pieces, Flight and Fear of the Deep, are short expressive works by a young composer still in college, and The Caryatids is a lyric and powerful work by renowned California composer Alexis Alrich. A commission from Ms. Schugren, it is being premiered here.