Refracting the Piano

Refracting the piano supports the composition, performance, and recording of three new works by composers Vicente Alexim, Daniel Fox, and Peter Kramer dealing with the resonant properties of the piano. The music is composed for Imri Talgam, a pianist of intense and expressive clarity.

The works will be performed live at Spectrum, NYC (26 February 2017) and recorded in Elebash Hall, NYC. Talgam will give a lecture-recital at the Music Department, Hunter College about how the three new works respond to the piano music of Ligeti, Stockhausen, and Schumann, composers central to Talgam's repertoire.

Vicente Alexim's Gemini creates a duet between the equal tempered instrument and its muted self, revealing an expanded spectral palette. Daniel Fox's Study of the piano No. 2 expands the focus of the pianist from hammer strikes to timbre-sculpting key releases. Peter Kramer's expansive Not Sorrow filters its tones and its quotations of Schumann through the resonant modes of the piano.