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Composer David LiptakNEWSJune 20, 2009 As we have done every year, my wife Pia and I will be visiting her native Denmark for a few weeks this summer. We look forward to the long days of sun and warmth, and I hope for some reflective time as well as for time for composing. On July 8th, I will visit Berlin to present my music to composers studying at the Freie Universität Berlin International Summer Program. The course in composition is presented by Samuel Adler, who was my teacher as I began my graduate studies in composition. There are a selected number of young composers who are in residence for this course and who, as a group, represent a broad international background. A commission I fulfilled in the past few weeks is an etude for piano solo to be used as the required piece during this summer's Chautauqua Music Festival XIV Piano Competition. The piece is called Star Light, and I describe it in the score like this: Star Light for solo piano is written in the manner of an etude, and the music I will be in residence at the Chautauqua Music Festival for the weekend of July 25th and 26th, talking about my music and listening to students perform. The competition, in which there will be 27 pianists, takes place in August. My current work is a “companion piece” to the one for piano solo. This new piece is called Star Bright, written for solo piano and an ensemble of twelve musicians. The first performance is to be on December 14th by the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble led by Brad Lubman. A few years ago, I wrote a Concerto for Viola and Percussion for John Graham, and I look forward to another performance of this piece on November 23rd with John as the viola soloist. This one will be in Tampa, in a concert at the University of South Florida with a recording to follow. |
