Month: December 2018

With 2019 just around the corner, I am very much looking forward to the new year. I’m also looking forward to the new semester at HKBU and especially to welcoming the fantastic American composer, George Tsontakis, as our Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Music for the spring term. George is the first faculty in the Arts to hold this esteemed professorship. I’m very happy to have “convinced” him to work with us!

George and I met in the summer of 2013 when I was a Composition Fellow at the Aspen Festival. Working with him, my late teacher, Steven Stucky, and a number of prominent guest composers, including Stephen Hartke and members of the “Class of ‘38” (John Corigliano, Joan Tower, John Harbison) was an incredible musical and personal experience. We’ve kept in touch since then, and I have learned a lot about music and the musical life from our conversations. In a field where one frequently encounters bitterness, George is a positive-thinking, forward-driving presence. Oh, and he also writes excellent—dramatic, expressive, memorable—music!

At HKBU George will teach a special topics course, work with composition students, and be part of an international conference I’m organizing, The Keyboard in the 21^st Century. His work will also be featured as part of the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in January. With so much going on, I am hoping he has time to explore Hong Kong, both its travel guide highlights and the spots that only I (and, admittedly, a couple thousand other people) know. A happy new year indeed!

I’m very pleased that pianist Daniel Pesca will be giving a second performance of Inner Truth as part of a faculty recital at the University of Chicago on February 23.  Daniel gave the premiere of the work last June and more recently recorded the work as part of my upcoming Albany Records CD.  He is among the most committed and intelligent interpreters of new music I know.  Further details on the program, which includes works of Thomas, Rands, Carter, and Kunssen, is available here.

I’m very happy to announce The Keyboard in the 21^st Century, an international conference for composers to be held this April 4-5 at HKBU. Featuring performances by outstanding Hong Kong pianists and guest performers, the conference will showcase the breadth of creative voices working with a range of keyboard instruments. Significantly, we are interested in presenting works for piano, harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano, organ, and synthesizer, with optional electronics. In addition to performances and roundtable discussions by participating composers, we are pleased to feature lectures and performances of music by George Tsontakis, Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Music at HKBU and Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Featured Guest Composer and Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music. This conference will be one of the highlights of George’s activities this spring at HKBU. My recent piano work, Inner Truth, will also be performed. More information on the Call-for-Scores is available here.