Two recent pieces, and two concerts

I'll be playing in two concerts coming up, and since I'll be performing the same two pieces both times, I'd like to describe them.  These were written last year, for a performance given with Elkhart poet Andrew Kreider.  The pieces are responses to two of his poems, and I'll be reading each poem before the appropriate piece.

Pumping Iron is about a father and son lifting weights, and the ostinato in the bass mirrors the weights moving up and down.  A highly emotional dialogue takes place against this background, as the father and son deal with their changing relationship, and the son becomes able to compete with, and overcome, his father.

What Won't Wait is about rushing a mother to the hospital to give birth.  Here there's both a mad rush and a sense of inevitability; the child isn't unexpected, after all, and birth, whenever it happens, becomes the most important thing in the world.

Here are the concert details:

The New York Society for Ethical Culture's Building Fund benefit concert will include Alison Davy, Jon Liechty, Mila Milosevic, Javier Oviedo, and Gene Rohrer. The concert will take place at 2:30 PM in Ceremonial Hall on the 4th floor of the Society's building at 2 W. 64th St. in Manhattan. Tickets: $15 general, $10 seniors/students.

Alison Davy, soprano; Javier Oviedo,saxophone; and Gene Rohrer, piano will perform music by Lee Hoiby and Elliott Carter; Mila Milosevic will perform Serbian and Hungarian folk music, plus selections by Charles Gounod and Frederick Loewe.




 The Brooklyn New Music Collective will hold a concert at the Firehouse Space on May 31 at 8:00 PM. Tickets $15 general, $10 seniors/students.

Here's the program:

Sofia Gubaidulina – Chaconne – Michael Rose, piano

John Cook – Trumpet Concerto (III mvt) – Roger Lent, trumpet and John Cook, piano

Thomas Millioto – solo work (premiere) – Thomas Millioto, electric guitar

JBM Trio: Jen Baker, trombone; Ben Holmes, trumpet; Mary Ziegler Roberts, French horn– 2 pieces TBA

Ben Holmes, trumpet and Patrick Farrell, piano/accordian – 2 shorts TBA

Penderecki – 3 Miniatures – Neil Rynston, clarinet and Michael Rose, piano

Richard Cameron-Wolfe – solo clarinet piece – Neil Rynston, clarinet

Christine Moore, soprano – TBA

Sean Hickey – “Longitude” vla/pno; “Cursive” Klara Min, solo piano

Matthew Kajcienski – piano solo TBA – Miori Sugiyama, piano

Jon Liechty – “Pumping Iron” and “What Won’t Wait” – Jon Liechty, piano

Works by Libby Larsen – Michael Brofman piano, Charlotte Mundy soprano

“Refrain” by Yehudi Wyner and “Spy vs. Spy” by Michael Rose-  Beth Levin, piano