Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents
Hammer/Klavier
Location: McAlpin Hall, Woolworth Center for Musical Studies
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Monday, October 07, 2013
Start time: 1:00 pm
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PSK presents piano and percussion ensemble HAMMER/KLAVIER in an open rehearsal of Princeton Music Department faculty member Paul Lansky's Textures on Monday, October 7th, 2013 at 1:00pm.
Dan Trueman, Director
Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor
HAMMER/KLAVIER:
Gwendolyn Burgett, percussion
Thomas Rosenkranz, piano
Michael Sheppard, piano
Svet Stoyanov, percussion
in an open rehearsal of Paul Lansky’s Textures
PAUL LANSKY
Textures
1. Striations
2. Loose Ends
3. Soft Substrates
4. Slither
5. Granite
6. Points of Light
7. Aflutter, On Edge
8. Round-Wound
34 minutes
Textures was commissioned by the ensemble Hammer/Klavier. In writing the piece I kept finding myself fascinated, on one hand by the wide variety of ‘textures’ the percussion is capable of, and by the world of harmony in which the piano is queen, and on the other hand the ways that piano and percussion could change places. So, I mixed them all together is various ways and pray fiercely that it all works. I also was thrilled to be able to work together with this group of brilliant performers. - PL
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Gwendolyn Patricia Burgett is currently associate professor of percussion at the Michigan State University College of Music. Burgett has maintained a career as an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She is currently the principal percussionist of the Lansing Symphony and has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Grand Rapids Symphony among others. Burgett was awarded the Teacher Scholar Award from Michigan State University in January 2012. She was the winner of the Keiko Abe Prize at the 2nd World Marimba Competition and received the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Burgett has also performed numerous solo recitals throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. She released her first solo CD in October of 2007 and her second solo CD in the fall of 2012 both on the Blue Griffin label. Burgett holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.
Thomas Rosenkranz enjoys a musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, and artist teacher. Since winning the Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association, his concert career has taken him to four continents. His repertoire extends from the works of J.S. Bach to premieres of works written exclusively for him, often including improvisation into his performances. During recent years, he has concertized in many of the major cities of Asia including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Jakarta, and Bangkok. His first trip to China began in 2006 when he was a featured soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra and since then he has returned annually. His 2013 visit included a nine-city tour including solo performances in the Grand Theatres of Ningbo, Hangzhou, and Wenzhou. During the summers, he is in residence at the soundSCAPE Festival in Maccagno, Italy where he engages pianists in the performance of new music. In 2010 he co-founded Musicians from soundSCAPE with percussionist Aiyun Huang and vocalist, Tony Arnold, highlighting the commissioned works of the festival in concert and in recordings. He also continues to perform with the two piano, two percussion group, Hammer/Klavier which recently commissioned a large-scale work by Paul Lansky entitled, Textures. In addition to his work in western art music, Mr. Rosenkranz continues to explore multi-cultural projects. He was named a Cultural Ambassador sponsored by the U.S. Department of State in 2003 and has traveled to Tunisia more than a dozen times to teach, collaborate and perform with local Tunisian musicians at such festivals as the Carthage International and the Tabarka Jazz Festival. He has been appointed to visiting residencies and professorships at the Sichuan Conservatory, Xinghai Conservatory, University of California at San Diego, and the Higher Institute de Musique Tunis among others. He has taught masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory, Tunghai University (Taiwan), Idllwyld Arts Academy, and the Oberlin Conservatory. Prior to his appointment at BGSU, he was a faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Mr. Rosenkranz completed an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied with Robert Shannon and earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with and was teaching assistant to Nelita True. On behalf of the Presser Foundation, he studied with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Paris. He is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University where he teaches piano, chamber music and leads the improvisation collective, The Combustible Arts Ensemble.
Already known as a pianist of dazzling virtuosity and penetrating musicianship, Michael Sheppard is also spreading his wings as a composer, arranger and transcriber. Trained by the legendary Leon Fleisher and the scholarly but passionate Ann Schein at the Peabody Conservatory, Michael was selected by the American Pianists Association as a Classical Fellow. This designation led to the recording of his Harmonia Mundi CD of 2007 and in late 2012 another recording will be released by Azica, a Cleveland-based label distributed worldwide by Naxos Records. The APA fellowship provided a tour of Southern Asia and the Middle East, done in collaboration with the US Department of State. During this tour, he performed with numerous national orchestras, played chamber music with resident ensembles, and played in solo recitals as well as diplomatic events. He additionally found time to do master classes and conducted informal presentations in secondary schools and universities. Back in the US, Mr. Sheppard made his debut at the Kennedy Center and has since performed standard piano repertoire with numerous orchestras nationwide in addition to recitals, more master classes, broadcasts and chamber performances as a member of the Monument Trio. He has returned to Asia, Europe and performed at Carnegie Hall as well. Receiver of a Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship and another from the LaGesse Foundation, Sheppard took a major prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs National Competition. As an interpreter of great acclaim of operatic transcriptions and musical theater scores, Michael Sheppard today stands at a crossroads, spending large amounts of time writing as well as performing and teaching. He has worked closely with fellow composers John Corigliano, Christopher Theofanidis, Michael Hersch, Robert Sirota and with the late Nicholas Maw, demonstrating a deep love of new music. His catalogue of works, numbering in the dozens, is about to be published and marketed by a new entrepreneurial music publishing company beginning in the fall of 2012. Michael Sheppard is a native of Philadelphia and resides in Baltimore where he often enjoys performing chamber music with Baltimore Symphony Principal cellist Dariusz Skorazewski and Hong Kong Philharmonic Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich in the Monument Trio. He is also a teacher at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Recently, he has reconnected with old friends and fabulous musicians Gwendolyn Burgett, Thomas Rosenkranz, and Svetoslav Stoyanov to form a two-piano, two-percussion music group calling itself "Hammer/Klavier".
Praised by the New York Times for his “understated but unmistakable virtuosity” along with a “winning combination of gentleness and fluidity,” Svet Stoyanov is a driving force in modern percussion. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and most recently, the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Award for outstanding achievement and public service, Mr. Stoyanov’s career highlights include solo appearances with the Chicago, Seattle, and American Symphony Orchestras, as well as debuts in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and Taiwan National Concert Hall amongst others worldwide. His solo album “Percussive Counterpoint” was released to a great acclaim, airing on multiple radio stations across the globe. A new recording, honoring the music of American composer Paul Lansky, will be released in the near future. Mr. Stoyanov has also recorded for Naxos, Telarc. A passionate advocate of contemporary and new music, Svet Stoyanov has commissioned a significant body of new solo and chamber works. This is commitment that Mr. Stoyanov considers essential to his role as a musician today. Current commissions feature a Duo in collaboration with flutist Claire Chaise and composer Marcos Balter, a Sextet by Alejandro Vinao, as well as a Percussion Quartet by Andy Akiho. Svet Stoyanov is the Director and Professor of Percussion Studies at the Frost School of Music in University of Miami, where he has collaboratively built a unique and innovative modern percussion program.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Paul Lansky has done just about everything, sometimes twice. This is his 89th semester at Princeton