Pianist Ursula Oppens To Honor Late Composer Frederic Rzewski In Kaufman Music Center's Marathon Concert Series, May 6

The internationally acclaimed American pianist Ursula Oppens will participate in Kaufman Music Center's marathon concert series The Pianists United: Rzewski in New York, on Saturday afternoon, May 6, 2023, at Merkin Concert Hall, at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

The three-concert series, part of Kaufman's "Piano Dialogues series," will honor the late American composer Frederic Rzewski, who died in June 2021. Ms. Oppens is slated to perform Friendship, a piece the composer dedicated to her, which she premiered in New York at the Mannes School of Music in March 2021.

The first concert at 3 p.m. EST will feature pianists Ursula Oppens, Jed Distler, Aron Kallay, Vicki Ray, Rob Schwimmer, and Nacho Ojeda. A highlight of the 3 p.m. program will be the New York premiere of Suite. Pianists Mikael Darmaine, David Friend, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, Isabelle O'Connell, and Kathleen Supové will perform on the 5:30 p.m. segment. And the 8 p.m. event will include pianists Anthony de Mare, Lisa Moore, and Conrad Tao.

The full program follows:

The Pianists United: Rzewski in New York 3 p.m.
no place to go but around Rob Schwimmer
Suite (NY Premiere) Aron Kallay
The Turtle and the Crane Vicki Ray
Short Fantasy on Give Peace A Chance Jed Distler
Friendship Ursula Oppens
Rubinstein in Berlin Nacho Ojeda

The Pianists United: Rzewski in New York 5:30 p.m.
The Road: Miles 5 & 7 Isabelle O'Connell
Piano Piece No.3 Kathleen Supové
Amoramaro Lisa Moore

To His Coy Mistress Lisa Moore

Four North American Ballads:

1. Dreadful Memories David Friend

2. Which Side Are You On? Mikael Darmanie

3. Down by the Riverside Kathleen Supové

4. Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues Blair McMillen

The Pianists United: Rzewski in New York 8 p.m.

Piano Piece No. 4 Lisa Moore
De Profundis Anthony de Mare
The People United Will Never Be Defeated Conrad Tao

Ticket of $30, and a $50 subscription for all three concerts are available for purchase at Kaufman Music Center's website, for more information, please visit the event page: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/piano-dialogues-the-pianists-united-rzewski-in-new-york-1/.

Born in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1938, Frederic Rzewski studied music at first with Charles Mackey of Springfield, and subsequently with Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, and Milton Babbitt at Harvard and Princeton Universities. He went to Italy in 1960, where he studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and met Severino Gazzelloni, with whom he performed in a number of concerts, thus beginning a career as a performer of new piano music. Rzewski's early friendship with Christian Wolff and David Behrman, and (through Wolff) his acquaintance with John Cage and David Tudor strongly influenced his development in both composition and performance. In Rome in the mid-sixties, together with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, he formed the MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva) group, which quickly became known for its pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. Bringing together both classical and jazz avant-gardists (like Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton), MEV developed an esthetic of music as a spontaneous collective process, an esthetic which was shared with other experimental groups of the same period (e.g. the Living Theatre and the Scratch Orchestra).

The experience of MEV can be felt in Rzewski's compositions of the late sixties and early seventies, which combine elements derived equally from the worlds of written and improvised music (Les Moutons de Panurge, Coming Together). During the seventies he experimented further with forms in which style and language are treated as structural elements; the best-known work of this period is The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a 50-minute set of piano variations. A number of pieces for larger ensembles written between 1979 and 1981 show a return to experimental and graphic notation (Le Silence des Espaces Infinis, The Price of Oil), while much of the work of the eighties explores new ways of using twelve-tone technique (Antigone-Legend, The Persians). A freer, more spontaneous approach to writing can be found in more recent work (Whangdoodles, Sonata). Rzewski's largest-scale work is The Triumph of Death (1987-8), a two-hour oratorio based on texts adapted from Peter Weiss' 1965 play Die Ermittlung (The Investigation).

Rzewski recorded The People United; North American Ballads, and Squares; and the Sonata and De Profundis on hat ART records (CD 6066, 6089, & 6134); Four Pieces on Vanguard; and Bumps, Andante con Moto, and The Turtle and the Crane for Newport Classic. The People United has also been recorded twice by Ursula Oppens-originally on Vanguard, and then again on the Cedille label; Stephen Drury (New Albion), and Yuji Takahashi; and the Ballads by Paul Jacobs on Nonesuch. Song and Dance is recorded on Nonesuch, Coming Together on both Hungaroton and Opus One, and Antigone on CRI. Mayn Yingele is recorded by Oppens for Music & Arts. Wails, Spots, and Crusoe are recorded by the Zeitgeist group for 00 Records.

Mr. Rzweski was Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liege, Belgium, from 1977 until his death in 2021. He also taught at the Yale School of Music, the University of Cincinnati, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California at San Diego, Mills College, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, and the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe.

Ursula Oppens, a legend among American pianists, is widely admired particularly for her original and perceptive readings of new music, but also for her knowing interpretations of the standard repertoire. No other artist alive today has commissioned and premiered more new works for the piano that have entered the permanent repertoire.

"Titan of the contemporary keyboard, Ursula Oppens is a rarity among artists living today," wrote Adam Sherkin in The Whole Note, September 21, 2021. "She is the stalwart bearer of a mid-century musical torch that apparently burns eternal. How fortunate we are to have such musicians as Oppens still making music with fortitude, passion and tireless faith."

A prolific and critically acclaimed recording artist with five Grammy nominations to her credit, Ms. Oppens is renowned for the original recording of Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated . That 1979 release on the Vanguard label, marked her first Grammy nomination, and became a cult classic.. In 2016 she put out a new recording of The People United Will Never Be Defeated, also nominated for a Grammy; earlier Grammy nominations were for Winging It: Piano Music of John Corigliano; Oppens Plays Carter; a recording of the complete piano works of Elliott Carter for Cedille Records (also named a "Best of the Year" selection by The New York Times long-time music critic Allan Kozinn); and Piano Music of Our Time featuring compositions by John Adams, Elliott Carter, Julius Hemphill, and Conlon Nancarrow for the Music and Arts label. Ms. Oppens recently added to her extensive discography by releasing Fantasy: Oppens plays Kaminsky in 2021 for the Cedille label. She also recorded Piano Songs, a collaboration with Meredith Monk, as well as a two-piano CD for Cedille Records devoted to Visions de l'Amen of Oliver Messiaen and Debussy's En blanc et noir performed with pianist Jerome Lowenthal.

During the pandemic, Ms. Oppens concertized both live and online. In May 2021 she was chosen to re-open the New York City Bargemusic series in person. Performing works by Chopin, Carter, and a newly composed piece entitled Friendship, by Frederic Rzewski, prompted Harry Rolnick of concertonet to review in glowing terms:

[in] her extraordinary one-hour concert last night...her fingers danced over the difficulties of Carter's Caténaires with the same effortless elegance as she played five Chopin Nocturnes. And she gives her music the oomph, the bravado, the vivacity which they deserve...Her virtuosity goes hand in hand literally-with her understanding. And yes, her attitude, her beatific smile after each work, her nuances that we in the audience are the important visitors, make a concert a thing of joy. But most important for this listener is that she can take the most supposedly recondite algorithmic composition and make it absolutely logical. Not logical philosophically or structurally, but with a logic of understanding. As possibly the world's most accomplished extant of Frederic Rzewski, I am certain her performance of Rzewski's Friendship was authoritative...Ms. Oppens creates the universe of great artists without judgments, only the obligation to offer her frequently ineffable artistry.

-May 22, 2021

In early 2019, Ms. Oppens performed a recital at Merkin Concert Hall for a celebration of her 75th birthday, inaugurating the Kaufman Music Center's newest series, Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight. Her program showcased all works written for her by Elliott Carter and John Corigliano, and gave the world premiere of a piano quintet by Laura Kaminsky-commissioned by the pianist for the occasion with production support from the Newburgh Institute for The Arts & Ideas-alongside the Cassatt String Quartet and Tobias Picker's Ursula for solo piano, a birthday present for his dear friend and collaborator.

Of Ms. Oppens' Merkin Hall concert, David Wright of New York Classical Review wrote on February 3, 2019:

Merkin Concert Hall was packed Saturday night...for a celebration of the pianist's 75th birthday on its exact date. Here one was especially aware of the quality of Oppens' tone-full and projected even in the softest pianissimo, and capable of producing tremendous impact in forte chords without sounding pinched or banged. Her pedaling was unusually subtle for new-music interpretation, managing resonances and overlapping tones like an expert Chopin player.

Over the years, Ms. Oppens has premiered works by such leading composers as John Adams, Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Anthony Davis, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, David Hertzberg, Laura Kaminsky, Tania Leon, György Ligeti, Erik Lundborg, Witold Lutoslawski, Harold Meltzer, Meredith Monk, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Bernard Rands, Frederic Rzewski, Allen Shawn, Alvin Singleton, Joan Tower, Lois V Vierk, Amy Williams, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman, and Charles Wuorinen.

As an orchestral guest soloist, Ms. Oppens has performed with virtually all of the world's major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Abroad, she has appeared with such ensembles as the Berlin Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Deutsche Symphonie, the Scottish BBC, and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. Ms. Oppens is also an avid chamber musician and has performed with the Arditti, Cassatt, JACK, Juilliard, and Pacifica quartets, among other chamber ensembles.

Ursula Oppens is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City; she also joined the faculty of Mannes College, The New School, in fall 2017. In 2019, Ms. Oppens was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New England Conservatory. From 1994 through the end of the 2007-08 academic year she served as John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. In addition, Ms. Oppens has served as a juror for many international competitions, such as the Bachauer, Busoni, Concert Artists Guild, Young Concert Artists, Young Pianists Foundation (Amsterdam), and Cincinnati Piano World Competition. Ms. Oppens lives in New York City.

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