https://roulette.org/event/vicky-chow-performs-philip-glass-etudes-book-2/
 

Vicky Chow performs Philip Glass Etudes Book 2

Sunday, May 12, 20248:00 pm    
       
$25 advance$30 doors$20 Student/Senior (w/ ID, Senior 65+)doors 7pm            
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Following her release of Philip Glass Etudes Book 1 in 2022 on Cantaloupe, pianist Vicky Chow will perform the Philip Glass Piano Etudes Book 2 in anticipation of the album release of Book 2.

“When I first encountered these pieces,” Chow recalls of the Etudes for Solo Piano by Philip Glass, “I was brought back to my roots of playing piano. Each one is so different — they can be very sophisticated and simple at the same time. So for me, it was all about going back to playing acoustic piano, with no electronics or extended technique or preparation, and utilizing that part of my brain.”

Glass has said that he composed the Etudes “to explore a variety of tempi, textures, and piano techniques,” and as the title suggests, these are keyboard studies at their most elemental and freewheeling. The composer also sought to refine his own piano technique (he began work on the Etudes in the early 1990s), exploring a range of moods and emotions that shift from hypnotic to stark, meditative to ebullient and beyond.

The original Etudes were compiled into two books of ten individual pieces each. While the work has been recorded by numerous pianists over the years — including, of course, Glass himself — Chow’s interpretation stands out, attributable in part to her own connections with the composer, as well as their shared presence in New York City’s new music community. Chow has been a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars for over a decade; she first met Glass while performing with him on stage, at the same piano, during one of the legendary Bang on a Can Marathons staged annually in the city.

“Proving herself to be an outstanding interpreter of contemporary compositions for piano, Vicky Chow brings to this now familiar set of studies by Philip Glass the kind of expressive sensitivity that allows them to flourish. In her hands these pieces far transcend their ostensible status as technical exercises.” -The Wire

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.