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Occupy the Pianos 2015 at St John’s Smith Square

At a glance
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Time 20:00
Date 11/09/15
Price £10

This year’s festival occupies itself with a number of strands, and investigates the full range of what’s possible for pianos past, present and future. Come and join the occupation! 

The US is strongly featured with music by Copland, Adams, Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros as well as having two towering prepared piano works by John Cage. The New York based pianist and writer Adam Tendler presents a distinctive solo recital.

There is a cabaret-style theme: on Sunday night, the inimitable Loré Lixenberg leads in Schoenberg’s carnival of menace, Pierrot Lunaire. The previous night in “Queer Pitch” a series of short pieces and readings preceded by a discussion look into how composers identify (or don’t) with a queer persona in their music.

There are tributes: a concert of left-hand music inspired by the poetry of the Nobel Laureate Tomas Transtrømer, who died this year; the much-missed Steve Martland’s huge and in-your-face Drill for two pianos; and a rare chance to hear the neglected Julius Eastman’s stunning minimalist Gay Guerilla.

Award-winning dancer Jonathan Goddard combines with Rolf Hind to show newly-created works for pianist and dancer, and a range of rising pianistic stars deliver pieces by a range of composers; from Rebecca Saunders’ thrilling, turbulent and visceral sounds to Karl Aage Rasmussen’s haunting distortions of memory and echoes.

There will be wetly-inked pieces from our Call for Scores, as well as a preview concert on the Thursday before where a line-up of the weekend’s players also offer a tantalising hint of what’s ahead.

11- 13 September

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