Mar
28
8:30 PM20:30

Diamanda Galás performs "De-Formation"

  • Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Diamanda Galás performs her De-Formation: Piano Variations, a substantial solo piano work that I assisted with transcribing. The program also includes Maryanne Amacher’s piano duo, Petra, performed by Galás with Stefan Tcherepnin. More information here.

Over two nights at Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection, Blank Forms presents two artists whose work takes orthogonal approaches to notation. Using the archival notes and sketches of Maryanne Amacher (1938–2009), several of the artist’s longtime collaborators reconstruct GLIA and Petra, two pieces from her oeuvre which are notable exceptions to Amacher’s ethos of ephemerality; the majority of her work has too many undocumented but temporally and spatially specific parameters to be restaged posthumously. Meanwhile, Diamanda Galás, Amacher’s friend and fellow traveler through the extremities of the music world, performs De-formation, a solo piano work about the plight of gueules cassées, disfigured WWI veterans referred to in the French as “broken faces.” Galás improvised De-formation in 2019; in 2023, she transcribed it with the help of Thomas Feng, making the piece reproducible for the first time.

View Event →
Sep
15
8:00 PM20:00

Tui St. George Tucker @ 100

  • Appalachian State University (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Thomas Feng gives the premiere performance of Tui St. George Tucker's contrapuntal tour-de-force, Ave Verum. An evening-length work unfolding in three large parts, Ave Verum interweaves an ambitious set of variations on an original hymn with traditional chorales and Jazz-Age Broadway songs – a tapestry-like microcosm of the composer's unique musical world.

Part of a two-day celebration of Tui St. George Tucker’s centenary, at Appalachian State University. Full schedule and more information available here.

The concert will be livestreamed here. Concert also includes two of Tucker’s choral works, performed by Springhouse Farm Choir, an ensemble she herself once directed.

View Event →
Mar
13
6:30 PM18:30

The Music of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru with LARAAJI and sinonó

Mississippi Records & Dada Strain Present:

An album release celebration for
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru's "Souvenirs"
&
"la espalda y su punto radiante" by sinonó
(Isabel Crespo Pardo, Lester St. Louis, Henry Fraser)

Featuring the piano of Thomas Feng
and very special guest LARAAJI

Wednesday, March 13
St Mark's Church on the Bowery, NYC
Doors: 6:30 pm
$20 adv / $25 doors

More information | Tickets

View Event →
Nov
30
to Dec 1

Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru at 100

A two-day symposium (Nov. 30-Dec. 1) celebrating the music and life of the legendary Ethiopian composer, pianist, and nun, Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru. The events will include panel discussions about Emahoy’s life and archive, and presentations of Emahoy’s music (some never yet performed) in live concert performances, and from her upcoming record Souvenirs. All events will be free and open to the public, and hosted on Cornell’s campus.

Nov. 30: Emahoy’s organ works; a panel discussion about Emahoy’s archive; listening party for Souvenirs

Dec. 1: a panel discussion about Emahoy’s life and family; a piano recital featuring works by Emahoy and Chopin

View Event →
May
16
to May 18

You Are A Root

My recording of the terrific new piece Eve Beglarian wrote for me was used in performances of You Are a Root. More information below:

You Are A Root is a pluridisciplinary performance work combining dance, theatre, visual arts and music. This project, inspired by mycorrhizal networks, explores the interconnectedness of human society. You Are A Root poses the question, how can we react constructively after a catastrophe?

View Event →
Jan
31
8:00 PM20:00

Ensemble X

Milton Babbitt – Semi-Simple Variations

Juri Seo – More Semi-Simple Variations, Intermezzo, and Fugue on a Theme of Milton Babbitt (with Jack Yarbrough)

A concert curated by Elizabeth Ogonek, featuring different approaches to lyricism and instrumental vocality. Program also includes works by Matthew Kaner, more music by Juri Seo, and Toru Takemitsu.

Barnes Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Free admission.

View Event →
Dec
7
5:00 PM17:00

Quo Vadis?: The Life and Music of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru

Thomas Feng (DMA candidate in Music) honors the extraordinary life and music of Ethiopian composer and nun, Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru. Biography, cultural history, original archival research, and performances of three of Emahoy's compositions interweave into an expansive lecture-recital presentation, in commemoration of the composer's upcoming 99th birthday.

More information here.

View Event →