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Beginning December 17th at 7:30 PM, pianist Sara Davis Buechner premieres “Of Pigs and Pianos” — the new one-woman show of her extraordinary life story in music and words. This theatrical and musical evening consists of excerpts from her recently-completed autobiography, illustrated with luminous piano performances, visual imagery and dramatic narration.

Ms. Buechner is one of America’s most well-known classical pianists, as well as one of the first transgender women to transition mid-career (in the 1990s).

She now shares her own tale of courage and integrity in the face of overwhelming personal and professional obstacles, to LGBTQA+ groups around the world, and opens that story in a delightful and absorbing new way with this unique showcase for her astounding talents.

Featuring piano music of Haydn Mozart, Chopin, Ferruccio Busoni, Federico Longás, Yukiko Nishimura, Péter Wolf, and Sara Davis Buechner herself.

Held on the 3rd floor of Manhattan’s TheaterLab, 357 West 36th Street (between 8th-9th Avenues), the show runs 1’15”, and will be presented four times without intermission: December 17th (7:30 PM); December 18th (two shows: 2 PM and 7:30 PM); and December 19th (5:00 PM with a post-show reception). 

Tickets are $30 general admission; $15 for students, seniors, and members of the LGBTQAI+ community, and are available at theaterlabnyc.com. 

Complete program (subject to change):
◇ 1 Péter Wolf: Adagio (from Wolf-Temperiertes Klavier – The Wolf-Tempered Clavier)
◇ 2 Wolfgang Mozart:  Sonata in F major KV. 332 (Adagio)
◇ 3 Franz Josef Haydn: Serenade in C major (transcription by Mieczyslaw Münz)
◇ 4 Frédéric Chopin: Sonata in B minor op. 58 (Allegro maestoso)
◇ 5 Federico Longas: Aragón
◇ 6 Ferruccio Busoni: Elegy no. 3 “Meine Seele bangt und hofft zu dir”
◇ 7 Sara Davis Buechner: Canción para dos niñas (from Escenas callejeras del Bronx)
◇ 8 Yukiko Nishimura: Hide-and-Seek (Etude no. 6)
◇ 9 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in G minor K. 8

“Of Pigs and Pianos” starring Sara Davis Buechner, is written by Ms. Buechner with Sal Trapani; directed by Sal Trapani; designed by Phillip Baldwin; and produced by Ms. Buechner in association with Orietta Crispino of TheaterLab and Yamaha Artist Services New York under the direction of Bonnie Barrett.

For more information about the program, please visit the TheaterLab website,
or contact them at either: (212) 929-2545 or [email protected]

For more about Sara Davis Buechner, please visit saradavisbuechner.com

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Irish composer/guitarist Dave Flynn, Artistic Director of the Irish Memory Orchestra (IMO), has just released a new album — IRISH MINIMALISM through the UK label First Hand Records. Featuring Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes), Breanndán Begley (voice), ConTempo Quartet, and IMO Quartet, the album was produced by 11-time GRAMMY award winner Judith Sherman, and has liner notes from WNYC’s John Schaefer. 

Available directly from firsthandrecords.com, and at all major online outlets.

No other ensemble in the world has the mix of instrumentation, repertoire, and performance style of the Irish Memory Orchestra — a unique ensemble that pioneered performing from memory as an orchestra — a trend that has caught fire among orchestras in the UK and in Ireland. Poised on the brink of wide international recognition, Flynn’s music, and the Irish Memory Orchestra have a wide appeal as indicated by successes from London to New York, Moscow to Japan.

Comprising 14 tracks, Irish Minimalism features two works for string quartet: The Cranning (String Quartet No. 2) and The Keening (String Quartet No. 3) — both performed by ConTempo Quartet. The two other pieces represented on the album, both featuring the IMO Quartet, are The Cutting (Quintet No. 1 for Uilleann Pipes and String Quartet) featuring Mick O’Brien uilleann pipes; and Stories from the Old World, where O’Brien is joined by the beautiful voice of Breanndán Begley.

With the title Irish Minimalism, composer Dave Flynn has laid down a marker. Minimalism is associated with America, and specifically with composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass (both of whom have spent a good portion of their careers disavowing the term).

But the hallmarks of the style — repetition; gradual, incremental changes that accrue over time; steady rhythms, often drawn from popular or traditional music; and a restrained sense of harmonic movement — are all compatible with Irish traditional music.

And after years spent as both a composer and performer working in the dual worlds of contemporary classical music and traditional song, By acknowledging the differences, and celebrating the similarities, Flynn has fashioned a personal musical language.

For more about Dave Flynn, please visit daveflynn.com
For more about the Irish Memory Orchestra, visit irishmemoryorchestra.com

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Photo by Elliot Mandel

Chicago Soprano Michelle Areyzaga and pianist Dana Brown are thrilled to present their new 4Tay Records release, Were I With Thee, showcasing a crystalline voice, masterful piano, and words penned by women and set by American composers.

“Were I With Thee” is a line from the Emily Dickinson poem “Wild Nights – Wild Nights,” and this album contains three settings of that poem. The album continues to celebrate Dickinson, featuring cover art by Emily’s living relative Kandice Dickinson.

Produced by Atlas Arts’ Aaron Gottl, this album comes together as an intelligently curated and performed body of work; a gorgeous piano and voice record that presents a unique vision, fusing women’s words from around the world to American song.

Areyzaga and Brown add, “This album will serve to introduce these works to young artists with the hope that they will be programmed on future recitals or albums. This is a female-uplifting project in all possible ways.”

Composers include Gwyneth Walker, Patrice Michaels, Richard Pearson Thomas, Lee Hoiby, Wayland Rogers, John Duke, Edouard Lippé, and Leonard Bernstein.

World premiere recordings are Walker’s Emily (complete cycle); Rogers’ Tres Poemas de Gabriela Mistral (two of which were composed for Areyzaga); Walker’s La Luz (from La Ternura, also composed for Michelle), and Duke’s standalone art song “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed”.

These songs are all based on texts written by women authors from a variety of English and Spanish speaking  countries, including:

  • USA: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • England: Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Chile: Gabriela Mistral
  • Puerto Rico: Julia de Burgos

Visit wereiwiththee.com for more information or to order CDs which are $20 (standard) or $30 (autographed) — both feature a free digital download link. (Buying directly from the artists ensures that 100% of the fees will go to the artists.)

For more about Michelle Areyzaga, visit michelleareyzaga.com
And for more about Dana Brown, visit danabrownmusic.com

This project is partially funded by
Roosevelt University Professional Development Fund
and by the Musicians Club of Women.

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Now online is The Making of Tremün, a free-to-watch documentary showcasing the behind-the-scenes production of Tremün: Celebrating Indigenous Roots — a concert like no other at Carnegie Hall (the concert itself is held on Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 8pm.)

Directed by Chilean-born and New York-based filmmaker Nicole Costa, this 20-min. short film follows the journey and heart of the upcoming Tremün concert.

Click to watch the full-length documentary for free on YouTube

Touching on the music, poetry, birdsong, and the endorsed and active celebration of Indigenous Chilean culture, the film features captivating and multifaceted interviews with Tremün’s artists and their involvement in creating this platform for BIPOC artists.

Below is an introductory clip to the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQACfK_pRQ4

You can also watch the whole film for free by clicking here.

Tremün: Celebrating Indigenous Roots is Notes For Growth Foundation’s debut concert at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City.

Tremün means “growth” in Mapudungun, the language of native Chilean people known as the Mapuche, and this concert is a celebration of music by and inspired by Indigenous peoples around the world including Peru, Mexico, Jamaica, and Chile. This program is poised to amplify the powerful words and voices of Tremün’s collaborators to a new audience in New York City.

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On Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 8pm Notes for Growth Foundation presents Tremün: Celebrating Indigenous Roots — their debut concert at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City. Tickets are $15-30 and are available for purchase at carnegiehall.org.

This concert will feature the premiere of nine new works by Latinx composers Patricio Molina, Ramón Catalan, Aina Sandoval, Carlos Zamora, and Sebastian Vergara in collaboration with Mapuche poets Roxana Miranda Rupailaf and María Lara Millapan, amplifying their powerful poetry to a new audience in New York City. The compositional style is accessible, using indigenous rhythms, stylistic motifs, and stories.

Performers include Notes for Growth Ambassadors and internationally acclaimed BIPOC musicians Sonya Headlam, soprano, Alejandro Mendoza, violin, and Enriqueta Somarriba, piano, among others. The concert concludes with legendary opera singer Verónica Villarroel in a performance that is the first of its kind, in which Ms. Villarroel will perform folk songs of indigenous peoples from the north of Chile.

This concert is poised to show Notes for Growth’s mission dedicated to equity, sustainability, and music education. (Biographies of all composers and performers are available upon request.)

Tremün means “growth” in Mapudungun, the language of native Chilean people known as the Mapuche. Tremün is a celebration of music by and inspired by indigenous peoples around the world including Peru, Mexico, Jamaica, and Chile.

Dr. Patricio Molina, Chilean-Syrian composer and pianist, is a Dreamer immigrant to the US. He graduated this spring from Rutgers University with his second of two doctorates, a Ph.D. in Music Composition, after a D.M.A. in Piano Performance, the first double-doctorate in the history of the university. He was recently named a Cleveland Institute of Music 2021 Future of Music Faculty Fellow.

His studies of Arabic music inspired by his heritage influenced a recently commissioned piece with the New Jersey Youth Symphony in collaboration with the creation of a new app designed for his music by Nokia Bell Labs.

Dr. Molina is the co-founder and president of Notes for Growth, whose mission to create access to music education for all children regardless of their circumstances has donated nearly 30 pianos and other instruments to institutions providing free music education in Chile, the NYC Metropolitan area, and worldwide. 

The program includes several world premieres, such as: 

• Kelülwe by Patricio Molina
Patricio Molina, piano

• Kuruf by Sebastian Vergara
Daniel Lamas, viola
Enriqueta Somarriba, piano

• El Condor Pasa Variation by Patricio Molina
Alejandro Mendoza, violin
Patricio Molina, piano

• Otoño en Tierra del Fuego by Aina Sandoval
Daniel Lamas, viola
Darwin Cosme Sanchez, flute
Claudia Peñailillo, clarinet
Enriqueta Somarriba, piano

• Nocturne Elegie for clarinet and piano
Claudia Peñailillo, clarinet
Ramon Catalan, piano

• Kecha Tregüfle by Patricio Molina (in Mapudungun)
Sonya Headlam, voice
Alejandro Mendoza, violin
Patricio Molina, piano

For more information, please visit Notes For Growth’s website