New Music/ Contemporary Classical Improvisation
Boston Woods is a composite sound painting of my many walks in the large conservation areas preserved by the Audubon Society near my house. In the woods, I see life as it really is- a continuously changing painting.
The Creole Dance, no, 3 from Twelve American Dances by the great Argentinian Composer, Alberto Ginastera is inspired by the original score.
Snowflakkes is not a based on a written score. It depicts nature in all its ever-changing majesty as a snowflake- sudden and fleeting.
The Shostakovich Children’s March is a well-known student composition and ripe with improvisational ideas.
Song for Jerry is from Ned Rorem’s Six Friends. I have been greatly influenced by Ned’s books: Pure Contraption, a Composer’s Essays, and Setting the Tone, Essays and a Diary.
Ivan Sings by the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, is another well-known student piece, and strong seed for new musical ideas.
The Chopin Mazurka in F Major and Prelude in C Minor are well-known. I depart from the original tonality of the works to sculpt my original musical ideas.
Double Kab are improvisations on two student pieces of Dmitri Kabelesvsky: the Sonatina opus 27, no.11 and the Toccatina, Opus 27 no.12. I go back and forth during the recording improvising on both compositions.
Metamorphosis 1 is a haunting composition by Phillip Glass which I find leads to expansive musical improvisation. I begin with the opening theme and expand it with the same tenor as the original composition.
My modern classical piano improvisations are influenced by contemporary classical composers: Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Phillip Glass, Alberto Ginastera, Ned Rorem, Dmitri Kabelevsky, as well as classical composers such as
J.S. Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Frederick Chopin. I improvise generally on full musical scores, unlike other piano improvisers who use lead sheets. I use modern contemporary sounding chords and musical rhythms.
I am a contemporary classical improvisational pianist.
This has a profound effect on my improv- blending various musical genres into one musical genre. New Music improv.