Metamorphosis I and IV by Philip Glass
Intimacy and Resistance by Ted Hearne (text Allison Carter)
Little Room by William Gardiner* (text Lisa Moore)
Ishi's Song by Martin Bresnick**
Equality and Prayer by Brett Dean (text Michael Leunig)**
De Profundis by Frederic Rzewski (text Oscar Wilde)
I Think It's Going To Rain Today by Randy Newman
* World premiere (assisted by funding from the Australia Council)
** West Coast premiere
The audience is invited to stay behind after the show to raise a glass, mingle and meet Lisa.
Australian pianist and vocalist Lisa Moore, described as "beautiful, impassioned, brilliant and searching" (New York Times), performs works by Bresnick, Glass, Hearne, Newman and Rzewski, including the legendary "De Profundis" (based on Oscar Wilde's text) and "Ishi's Song" (based on a melody sung by Californian Native-American Ishi).
Based in New York City, this Australian pianist has performed with the London Sinfonietta, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich Ensemble, So Percussion, TwoSense, Signal, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Paul Dresher Double Duo.
Moore has released eight solo discs (Cantaloupe, Tall Poppies, OMM) and over 30 collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland). She has worked with composers ranging from Iannis Xenakis to Meredith Monk and Thurston Moore.
In 1981, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Rockefeller Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. From 1992–2008 she was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars, the electro-acoustic sextet and winner of Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year Award.
Lisa Moore will be on Sarah Cahill’s KALW radio show “Revolutions per minute” on July 13th 8-10PM.
For more information on Lisa and the composers please visit these websites:
“Ripples of pending urgency are organic and fundamental in Philip Glass’ Mad Rush which has become a piano solo classic - composed for the Dalai Lama’s 1981 New York City visit and dramatic cathedral entrance; Brooklyn composer Ted Hearne’s Intimacy and Resistance is a poignant song (with text by poet Allison Carter) about reality, inevitability and moving on. Little Room is a new creation (still a work in progress) by the young Australian composer William Gardiner (with my own adapted text) - it’s about identity and Irish-Australian roots; Ishi was the last American Indian of his Yahi-Yani tribe - he walked out of the northwest to Berkeley CA and was nurtured by anthropologists until his passing. Ishi’s Song is based on the Maidu Doctor’s Song, a medical healing piece adapted by Martin Bresnick. It reflects our basic sense that we are all the last of our own tribes; Little Room is a new creation by the young Australian composer William Gardiner (with my own adapted text) - it’s about identity - Irish immigration and the real self; Australian Brett Dean’s Equality and Prayer indignantly and respectively shout and pray cartoonist Michael Leunig’s words about the outrageous and the oddly-paired. Frederic Rzewski’s De Profundis exposes Oscar Wilde’s 1895 inner anguish from a prison cell while doing time for being himself. And last, but not least, a household favorite wraps things up - Randy Newman’s enigmatic song of depressed-optimism I Think It’s Going To Rain Today.
This program is close and personal, so please, let me play - from me to you.”
