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Geoffrey Burleson, piano: "American Landscapes & Surreal Sonic Machines"

the cell
New York, NY

Geoffrey Burleson, piano

"American Landscapes & Surreal Sonic Machines"

PROGRAM:
Roy Harris (1898-1979): Piano Sonata (1928)

Michael Sahl (b. 1934): Blues/Pastoral/The Cave/Dance (world premiere)

George Antheil (1900-1959): La Femme 100 Tetes (1933), synchronized with projections from Max Ernsts collage novel

This program highlights the work of three dynamic and cutting-edge American composers. George Antheil and Roy Harris emanate from the first half of the 20th century, and composed compelling, infectious and sometimes radical works. Michael Sahl is very much with us today, born around the same time that Harris' and Antheil's groundbreaking works were flourishing.

The culmination of this program will be a rare complete performance of George Antheils La Femme 100 Tetes, synchronized with video projections from Max Ernsts surrealist collage novel of the same name. Ernsts novel was published in 1929, and deeply inspired Antheil to write a set of 45 vibrant miniatures for solo piano to accompany each illustration, along with a concluding Percussion Dance. Antheil had already achieved great fame in Paris as the bad boy of music, largely with his Ballet Mcanique, a sort of piano concerto where a machine is the soloist (a pianola, or player piano), with the orchestra consisting of numerous pianos and percussion instruments, including sirens and airplane propellers.

According to his own accounts, Roy Harris was born in a log cabin in the Oklahoma panhandle in 1898. Harris strived in his work to evoke something of the untamed American landscape, amidst his very sophisticated and often eccentric compositional style. His Piano Sonata, Op. 1, is both unpredictable and inevitable in its arc and design. It is simultaneously highly fragmented, with constantly shifting and dramatic changes in rhythm, and resplendent with very long, searching and poignant melodies. The Piano Sonata achieved a great notoriety upon its unveiling.

Michael Sahl has always been an extremely versatile and innovative musician, and easily belongs in the same company with Antheil and Harris. His approach to radicalism was to dare to write serious concert works informed by both Romanticism and vernacular music, at a time when the only composers taken seriously were generally writing in an atonal serial vein. Among his significant musical credits, Sahl was a co-founder, arranger and creator of works for the Tango Project, which also featured William Schimmel on accordion. He, his trio and his arrangements were seen and heard in such Hollywood films as Scent of a Woman and True Lies. He was also a pianist and arranger for Judy Collins. Sahls collection of pieces for this program includes three world premieres, and all are brilliantly effective.

Geoffrey Burleson, pianist, has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and jazz performer. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Boston Musica Viva, Arlington Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, and the Holland Symfonia in the Netherlands, performing repertoire ranging from Mozart, Weber and Saint-Sans to Gershwin and Klaas de Vries. In 2008, New World Records released Mr. Burlesons second solo recording: Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), a 2-CD set on which all twelve of Persichettis piano sonatas are united on one release for the first time. The CD has since received high praise from the BBC Music Magazine (BBC Music Choice, 5/5 stars), Gramophone, and Fanfare. Another 2008 release is Odd Couple, a duo CD of American works with cellist Matt Haimovitz, featuring the Barber and Carter Sonatas, as well as newer works by David Sanford and Augusta Read Thomas. Mr. Burlesons first solo CD, Arthur Berger: Complete Works For Solo Piano (Centaur), received high praise from The New York Times, Gramophone, The Boston Globe, and The American Record Guide. Upcoming solo projects include Roy Harris: Complete Piano Works for Naxos. Mr. Burleson is a core member of Impetus, The New York Art Ensemble, the Boston Musica Viva, and the Pittsburgh Collective. He holds the DMA degree from SUNY-Stony Brook, where he studied with Gilbert Kalish. Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University, and is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York.

Kid Friendly: No

Dog Friendly: No

Non-Smoking: No

Wheelchair Accessible: No

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