WQXR Presents: Beginner’s Ear
On January 31, the hypnotic music of Julia Wolfe, Philip Glass, Hannah Lash and Julián De La Chica becomes a vehicle for deep inward exploration in this special one-hour event combining guided meditation and live music.
WQXR presents Beginner’s Ear, one hour of lunchtime bliss with guided meditation and a live performance by world-class musicians every Friday from January 17 through March 6.
On January 31, the hypnotic music of Julia Wolfe, Philip Glass, Hannah Lash and Julián De La Chica becomes a vehicle for deep inward exploration in this special one-hour event combining guided meditation and live music. The performer is Lisa Moore, whose playing was singled out by the New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness.”
Lisa is joined by the Colombian composer and sound artist Julián De La Chica, “an extraordinarily deep thinker … able to take a listener into mysterious by-ways using very slender means.” (Stephen Mould) Join in a simple mindfulness practice to clear mental static, then allow the sounds of Lisa’s piano transport you on a sonic journey.
Hosted and moderated by New York Times contributing critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim. Meditation led by Thomas Droge, founder of the Pathfinder Institute.
Video
Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica
Prelude Op. 8 No. 13
Lisa Moore Live in NYC | Music by Philip Glass & Julián De La Chica
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 8:00 PM @ The DiMenna Center in New York City, Lisa Moore will World Premiere her new CD: Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 (For piano and synthesizer) produced and published by Brooklyn based, independent record label, Irreverence Group Music (IGM).
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 8:00 PM @ The DiMenna Center in New York City, Celebrated pianist Lisa Moore will World Premiere her new CD: Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 (for piano and synthesizer) produced and published by Brooklyn based, independent record label Irreverence Group Music (IGM). For the first part of the concert, Ms. Moore chose works by American composer Philip Glass: Etude No. 2, Metamorphosis II and Satyagraha Act III, Conclusion. Australian pianist Lisa Moore has been described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” (The New York Times), “visionary” and "New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” (The New Yorker).
Ms. Moore will perform with composer De La Chica on synthesizer.
Lisa Moore
De La Chica: Prelude Op. 8 No. 13
Celebrated pianist Lisa Moore releases her new album with music by Julian De La Chica
Described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” by The New York Times and crowned “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” and “visionary” by The New Yorker, the celebrated pianist Lisa Moore released her new album DE LA CHICA: PRELUDES OP. 8 on March 1st 2018. The album - produced and published by independent record label Irreverence Group Music - is the Premiere Recording of the New York based Colombian composer Julián de la Chica's Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
Described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” by The New York Times and crowned “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” and “visionary” by The New Yorker, the celebrated pianist Lisa Moore released her new album DE LA CHICA: PRELUDES OP. 8 on March 1st 2018. The album - produced and published by independent record label Irreverence Group Music - is the Premiere Recording of the New York based Colombian composer Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
Album Notes
Lisa Moore's repertoire and discography include a wide range of piano literature, from baroque to modern - where experimental music, minimalism, and post-minimalism play a important role. Her oeuvre continues to grow with the addition of this album, dedicated to New York-based Colombian composer Julián de la Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
These 14 preludes are an example of “sensorial-minimalism” and perhaps they are a continuation of the composer's exploration in his two recent cycles: Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5 for piano (performed by the composer himself), and Experimentelle und Unbestimmte Lieder Op. 9 for soprano, piano and synthesizer (recorded by American soprano Rachel Hippert). In these works, and his piano Preludes, Mr. De La Chica organically oscillates between post-minimal and ambient music. With the constant evolution of music, each epoch engenders new bodies of both performers and audience. In this album, Ms. Moore presents a form of piano art that challenges itself and views virtuosity as a technical practice guided by the search for sound. The repertoire ultimately becomes a way to forge the pianist’s body and way of listening, and it evolves side by side with the creation of sound in time.
“Open, warm, inviting, beguiling -Julian’s music is unique and beautiful. He stretches time. Clear, simple, tender melodies line the air, sculpting edges across open harmonic spaces. His gentle blend of piano and synthesizer creates cushioned swirling textures, coaxing memory and imagery, soothing and consoling. I was really touched when Julian asked me to record his piano music. For me, the moment seemed just right to do this album. I feel a strong visceral connection.I hope listeners do too.”
— Lisa Moore
Julián De La Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer were composed in New York City between 2015 and 2017. About these works, the author says: “The Op. 8 cycle is a process that improvises the image that is absent. The hidden image creates emotion, truth and reality… The Preludes are an exploration of another kind of virtuosity... the virtue of sound. What lies behind, what we do not see.”
Every new school exists because it engages in a dialogue with tradition. Italian pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore reminds us, for instance, that “what is modern about Beethoven’s research is that which the music score does not say: a reflection of the physiological components of the performance, the equilibrium of forces that the performer establishes with the keyboards, something that can also be produced in pages of great simplicity” (Beethoven al piano, 2010). I daresay, without a trace of historiographical reserve, that Lisa Moore’s work exemplifies that dialogue between exploration and the rigorous development of traditional performance practice. The composer proposes ideas, then Lisa Moore’s performance creates a dialogue between those ideas and her performance and sound development. Essentially, what the score does not say exists in Lisa Moore’s unique sound as a pianist, and is what invites us to listen to these Preludes within our living time.
Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer
Behind the Scenes
the video:
Don't miss the album recording's Behind the scenes and the exclusive
conversation with celebrated pianist Lisa Moore and watch
some of the most stunning moments of her performance.
“When I think about the preludes, I think of Lisa. She narrated the story with elegant inventiveness. Sophistication. She was seductive and indomitable. She thought continuously of the sound, she explored the piano as a stage, the concept as a scene. Lisa was transfigured in that image that is not there, that we do not see, but that exists ... she has the maturity and the vision to do it.”
— Julián De La Chica
the artists
The New York Times writes ‘Lisa Moore has always been a natural, compelling storyteller’ while TimeOut New York describes her as ‘the wonderfully lyrical pianist’. Lisa Moore has released 10 solo albums (Cantaloupe, Orange Mountain, IGM, Tall Poppies, Bandcamp) ranging from Leoš Janáçek to Philip Glass. Her 2016 album The Stone People (Cantaloupe), featuring music by John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe, made both The New York Times Top Classical Albums of 2016 list and Naxos’ 2017 Critics’ Choice.
Ms. Moore has recorded more than thirty collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi, Bandcamp). She has worked with over 200 composers and performed globally as both a soloist and a collaborator with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists including the London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, Steve Reich Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars (founding member ‘92-’08), Paul Dresher Double Duo, So Percussion, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Grand Band, TwoSense, and Ensemble Signal. Festival highlights include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Huddersfield, Holland, Graz, Paris d'Automne, Rome, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw - in venues - Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, La Scala, Musikverein, and the Sydney Opera House.
Visit here the official website of pianist Lisa Moore.
Julián De La Chica is a Colombian composer, pianist and record producer based in Brooklyn, NY, whose influences range from American minimalism to the alternative and electronic scene. His work, most of the time inspired by everyday images, the search of personal spiritual reflection and the inner darkness, mixes piano, strings, and classical singers, with electronic keyboards and controllers, crossing over from classical to ambient/electronic music.
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