Originally presented at the The Rubin Museum of Art in New York, Anthony de Mare has created an eclectic program of works chosen in response to the exhibition, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, currently touring museums around the globe. Having generated enthusiastic responses at its premiere, Missing Peace offers a compelling series of musical tableaux including works that best reflect the Dalai Lama’s aesthetics of compassion, impermanence, peace and unity of all things. The program features the performer’s signature style of multi-disciplinary performance and includes a selection of corresponding visual works from the exhibition, carefully chosen by Mr. de Mare, for projection during the concert.

The program includes James Mobberley’s “Missing Peace” (written for this project), in addition to piano-vocal adaptations of Laurie Anderson’s “Statue of Liberty” (from Life of a String, 2001) and Meredith Monk’s “urban march – shadow” (from her acclaimed collaboration with Ann Hamilton, mercy, 2001), and significant works bridging these universal perspectives by J.S. Bach, John Adams,George Crumb, Claude Debussy, Giacinto Scelsi, Alexander Scriabin, Bruce Stark and Frederic Rzewski.

Missing Peace
Artists Consider the Dalai Lama

PROGRAM

Tableau I

– Prelude in C Major (BWV 846) J.S. Bach
– China Gates (1977) John Adams
– In B (2007) James Mobberley

Tableau II
– Makrokosmos, Vol. I (1972) George Crumb
– Proteus
– Pastorale (from the Kingdom of Atlantis, ca. 10,000 B.C.)
– The Magic Circle of Infinity

Tableau III
– La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (1913) Claude Debussy
– Suite No. 9 “Ttai” (Peace) (1953): Mvt. IV Giacinto Scelsi
– Sonata No. 4 (1903) Alexander Scriabin

Tableau IV
– urban march (shadow) (“mercy”) (2001) Meredith Monk
(transcription by Anthony de Mare)
– Statue of Liberty (“Life on a String”) (2001) Laurie Anderson
(transcription by David McIntire and Anthony de Mare)

Tableau V
– Fugue and Interlude (2003) Bruce Stark

Tableau VI
– Missing Peace (2007) James Mobberley
– Piano Piece No. 4 (1977) Frederic Rzewski

Projections of representative works from the exhibition include:

Kisho Mukaiyama: Sanmon WCC – yupotanju + nupotanje, 2005
Pat Steir: Blue, 2005
Bill Viola: Bodies of Light, 2006
Guy Buffet: His Holiness and the Bee – (“How A Little Annoyance Can Bring Great Joy”)
Losang Gyatsu: Tenzin Gyatso, Ocean of Wisdom, 2005
Filippo di Sambuy: Possible Painting Impossible Sculpture No Ending Energy, 2004
Era and Donald Farnsworth: Dharmakaya, 2004
Richard Avedon: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Monks, 1989
Yoshiro Negishi: Untitled, 2006
Michal Rovner: Spiral-Link, 2004
Laurie Anderson: From the Air, 2006
Adriana Varejao: Andar com fe, 2000
Salustiano: Reincarnation, 2005
Jenny Holzer: “IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER,” 1983-85
Dario Campanile: La Pace E Con Noi (Peace is With Us), 2005

From the early 20th century to the present day, classical composers have responded to the jazz sounds that are a vital part of American culture. Soulful riffs and syncopated rhythms have intertwined themselves into the canon of classical works to a point where one wonders where one genre begins and the other ends.

Continuing the great traditions of blues, ragtime, tango, boogie-woogie, stride, funk, hip-hop and other styles, Anthony de Mare presents a delightful journey into the treasures of jazz-influenced piano works, seen through the eyes of composers who know how to effectively navigate between these two worlds.

PROGRAM:
Aaron COPLAND: Four Piano Blues (1926-48)
George ANTHEIL: Jazz Sonata (1923)
Darius MILHAUD: Rag-Caprices (1922)

Arnold SCHOENBERG: Klavierstuck, Op. 33a (1928)
George GERSHWIN: Melody No. 17 (1925-26)
Leonard BERNSTEIN: Cool (1957)

Igor STRAVINSKY: Tango (1940)
Michael SAHL: Tango from Exiles Café (1984)
Charles IVES: In The Inn (1909)
Conlon NANCARROW: Sonatina (ca. 1941)

Aaron Jay KERNIS: Speed Limit Rag (2001)
Fred HERSCH: Little Midnight Nocturne (2001)
Bruce STARK: Fugue (2003)

Ricardo LORENZ: Bachango (1984)
Daniel Bernard ROUMAIN: Jam ! (1994)
Frederic RZEWSKI: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (1979)

SPEAK! ~ Celebrating the Speaking/Singing Pianist
February 8th, 2010
Celebrating the release of his newest recording SPEAK! on E1 Entertainment (formerly KOCH International Classics) , Anthony de Mare, whose pioneering work in concert theater fueled the explosive growth of compositions for the speaking pianist, offers an exciting and authoritative review of the genre he helped create on this first recording devoted exclusively to works of this nature. De Mare has commissioned, premiered and even collaborated on the definitive works in this multidisciplinary category that have thrilled and inspired composers, performers and audiences around the world. In this program, he draws from the broad range of possibilities that this genre has brought forth culturally. Compelling the performer to unite piano, body and voice into one instrument, these works explore myriad variations of language — reciting, vocalizing and ritualistic chanting — while showcasing de Mare’s renowned virtuosity at the keyboard.
Dramatic, poignant and humorous, this program features texts from some of our most revered authors – Oscar Wilde, Allen Ginsburg, and James Joyce, as well as original librettos by playwrights and the composers themselves. The concert program includes works by American composers Laurie Anderson, Frederic Rzewski, Jerome Kitzke, Derek Bermel, John Cage, Meredith Monk, James Mobberley and Rodney Sharman.

PROGRAM:
Meredith MONK: Gotham Lullaby (1973)
urban march (shadow) (2001)
Rodney SHARMAN: The Garden (2001)
(text by Peter Eliot Weiss)
James MOBBERLEY: Missing Peace (2007)
John CAGE: Waiting (1952)
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942)
Nowth Upon Nacht (1984)
(text by James Joyce)
Derek BERMEL: Fetch (2004)
(text by Will Eno)
Laurie ANDERSON: Statue of Liberty (2001)
(transcription by David McIntire & Anthony de Mare)
Jerome KITZKE: Sunflower Sutra (1999)
(text by Allen Ginsberg; additional text by Jerome Kitzke)
(OR)
Frederic RZEWSKI: De Profundis (1992)
(text by Oscar Wilde)

In this splendid array of works that have long held great personal meaning for him, Anthony de Mare brings together three very diverse early 20th Century masterworks — Claude Debussy’s luminescent second book of Preludes, Arnold Schoenberg’s soulful and emotionally driven Opus 11 Klavierstucke and Henry Cowell’s haunting, string piano classic The Banshee – with two of today’s most intriguing creators. The first half of this international program is framed by two milestone works written in the same year by two of America’s most influential mavericks — Philip Glass’s spirited Mad Rush and Frederic Rzewski’s industrial blues powerhouse Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.
Presented together, these works juxtapose contradictory emotions and style with dynamic displays of sound color. Listeners will appreciate why Philip Glass once compared his music to “the motor on a space machine,” as they hear elements of jazz, expressionism, minimalism, Eastern influences, and lush pianistic imagery spin this surprising program into scintillating motion.

PROGRAM:
Mad Rush (1979) Philip Glass
Drei Klavierstucke, Op. 11 (1909) Arnold Schoenberg
The Banshee (1925) Henry Cowell
Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (1979) Frederic Rzewski

–Intermission–

Preludes, Book II (1913) Claude Debussy
Brouillards
Feuilles mortes
La Puerta del Vino
Les Fees sont d’exquises danseuses
Bruyeres
General Lavine – eccentric
La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
Ondine
Hommage a S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
Canope
Les tierces alternees
Feux d’Artifice

PROGRAM

The Alcotts (from Piano Sonata No. 2) (1914) Charles Ives
(“Concord, Mass., 1840-1860”)

Travel Song (1981) Meredith Monk
Paris (1972)
The Tale (1973)

Ballad in Yellow (1997) David Del Tredici

Fugue (2003) Bruce Stark
Little Midnight Nocturne (2002) Fred Hersch
Cool (1957) Leonard Bernstein

De Profundis (1992) * Frederic Rzewski
– text by Oscar Wilde
– written for Anthony de Mare