Pianists Ursula Oppens & Jerome Lowenthal To Perform Live On BargeMusic's ECLECTIC Series

The internationally acclaimed American pianist Ursula Oppens is joined by longtime collaborator, the noted pianist Jerome Lowenthal at Brooklyn's Bargemusic (Fulton Ferry Landing, 1 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201) for an in-person piano concert, Eclectic Series: Friendship, on Friday evening, September 17, 2021 at 7 pm EDT. Together they will give the New York premiere of Michael Brown's Twelve Blocks (2020-21), as well as perform Mendelssohn's Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

As part of the program, aptly named Friendship, she will play Frederic Rzewski's solo piano piece, also named Friendship and dedicated to her, which she premiered earlier this year in March 2021 at the Barge. This will mark the first time since his death that she performs this work. The program will also feature Ms. Oppens playing Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel and Mr. Jerome playing Beethoven and Mendelssohn. The full program follows:

Mendelssohn Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

Beethoven Sonata in e minor, Op. 90

Mendelssohn Songs without Words

Spring Songs

Lost Illusions

Frederic Rzewski (in Memoriam) Friendship (2020)

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

April

November

Michael Brown Twelve Blocks (2020-21)*

*New York Premiere

Tickets at $35 are available for purchase at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5213301. For this in-person concert, Bargemusic is asking all audience members, staff, and performers to provide proof of full vaccination status-at least 14 days from the final dose of vaccine-at the door (CDC card or Excelsior Pass).

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.

A prolific and critically acclaimed recording artist with five Grammy nominations to her credit, Ms. Oppens is renowned for her cult classic The People United Will Never Be Defeated by the late iconoclastic composer Frederic Rzewski. That 1979 release, for the Vanguard label, marked her first Grammy nomination. In 2016 she put out a new recording of The People United Will Never Be Defeated, also nominated for a Grammy, and 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 has 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

On February 2, 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.

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.

Born in 1932, Jerome Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences with his combination of youthful intensity and eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and emotions. Mr. Lowenthal made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1963, playing Bartok's Second Piano Concerto. Since then, he has performed virtually everywhere, from the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has appeared as soloist with celebrated conductors including Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, and with such giants of the past as Bernstein, Ormandy, Monteux, and Stokowski. Mr. Lowenthal has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman; piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens; and quintets with the Lark, Avalon, and Brentano Quartets. Jerome Lowenthal has recorded Two-Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy with Oppens and Liszt's complete Annés De Pélerinage on a 3-CD set. Other recordings include concertos by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartók, and chamber music by Arensky and Taneyev. Teaching is an important part of Mr. Lowenthal's musical life, including 20 years at the Juilliard School and 42 summers at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Lowenthal has worked with an extraordinary number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective - and to project it with the freedom which that perspective allows.