Event Details
Date & Time
Tuesday, Nov 26, 2024 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Department
Music
Cost
Free Admission (Suggested Donation of $10)
Location
Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center
Event Type & Tags
About This Event
Program:
Award-winning pianist Gabriel Merrill-Steskal performs a program that explores miniature pieces written by American composers within the last 100 years. Many of these pieces offer an interpretation of a quintessentially American genre or sound, such as ragtime in Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost and Poltergeist, or classicized versions of boogie-woogie and the blues in Barber’s Excursions. Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs are the renowned Jazz pianist’s main foray into classical writing, and he imbues each of these tiny pieces with his signature sound. Amy Beach’s and William Horne’s pieces are part of a more classically-oriented tradition, each Brahmsian in their own way with careful motivic development and masterful use of form. Michael Kropf’s piece, Music for the Home, is at once the newest and the oldest on the program; he composed it in 2024 for a fortepiano from 1826. This will be its modern piano premiere.