performed by pianist Stephen Drury and friends
The concert is sold out- to join the waitlist, visit
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of György Ligeti's birth, we present concert featuring highlights from Ligeti's chamber music repertoire. Stephen Drury performs selections from Book 1 (1985) from Ligeti's cycle of 18 études for solo piano and from
Musica Ricercata. Members of the Calithumpian Consort perform hisTrio for Violin, Horn and Piano.
Considered one of the the most important additions to the solo-piano repertoire in the last half-century, the Etudes for Piano (three books, 18 in all) are notorious for their technical difficulty yet beautiful expressive content. Ligeti effectively created a new pianistic vocabulary while calling on many influences that permeate his later work after the early 1980s – from the polyrhythmic player-piano studies of Conlon Nancarrow to the music of sub-Saharan Africa, chaos theory to the minimalism of Steve Reich.
The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, completed in 1982 and marked
Hommage à Brahms in reference to Brahms' famous horn trio, represents a turning point in Ligeti’s career. Influenced by sources as diverse as sub-Saharan African drumming, the music of Conlon Nancarrow, and the piano music of Chopin and Schumann, the Trio is considered to be the watershed moment that opened up his "third way," a style that Ligeti claimed to be neither modern nor postmodern.
György Ligeti was born on 28.5.1923 as the son of Hungarian-Jewish parents in Dicsőszentmárton (now known as Târnǎveni, in Transylvania/Romania). He studied at the Conservatory in Klausenburg with Ferenc Farkas from 1941 to 1943 and from 1945 to 1949 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with Sándor Veress, Pál Járdányi and Lajos Bárdos. Following the abatement of the Hungarian Revolution, he left his native country in December 1956 for both political and artistic reasons. During his time as freelancer in the West German Radio studio for electronic music in Cologne (1957-58), he undertook an intense study of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel and Pierre Boulez. In the 1960s, Ligeti was associate professor at the Summer School for Contemporary Music in Darmstadt and guest professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm. He received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Programme (DAAD) in Berlin for 1969-70 and was Composer in Residence at the Stanford University in California in 1972 before being appointed as Professor for Composition at the Hamburg Musikhochschule the following year. The composer made a substantial impact on international contemporary music both as a university professor (up to 1989) and as an active member of the music scene and became the musical aesthetic benchmark for a whole generation. György Ligeti died in Vienna on 12 June 2006.
© Drury
Stephen Drury has given performances throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America, soloing with orchestras from San Diego to Bucharest. A prize winner in several competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild, Affiliate Artists, and Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller competitions, his repertoire stretches from Bach, Mozart, and Liszt to the music of today.
A champion of 20th-century music, Drury’s critically acclaimed performances range from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by John Cage and György Ligeti. He premiered the solo part of John Cage’s 101 with the BSO and gave the first performance of John Zorn’s concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony. He has commissioned new works from Cage, Zorn, Terry Riley, Lee Hyla, and Chinary Ung.
Drury is on the piano and conducting faculty at New England Conservatory and assumed directorship of NEC’s Enchanted Circle concert series in 1997. He created and directs NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance.
Sarah Sutherland is a Boston-based horn player who performs and teaches throughout the Northeast. Currently the third horn in the Springfield Symphony and the hornist in the Back Bay Brass quintet, she has performed and recorded with many ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow for two summers. Sarah teaches students privately, at Powers Music School, and Wellesley Public Schools and serves as
the Finance Officer for Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MOSSO). She graduated from Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, and New England Conservatory, studying with James Sommerville and Jason Snider, and earned degrees in music, mathematics, and statistics
Violinist
Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s "Paganiniesque virtuosity" and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston, including multiple solo performances at Jordan Hall and chamber music at Symphony Hall (Boston Symphony Orchestra Insights Series), as well as at leading academic institutions, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. Highlights from the 2023 season include performances with A Far Cry at The Kennedy Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project at Carnegie Hall, and [Switch~ Ensemble] at June in Buffalo as well as the release of an album featuring A Far Cry, Roomful of Teeth, and pianist Awadagin Pratt. Described as “brilliantly rhapsodic” by the Harvard Crimson, Ms. Hartunian can be heard on New Focus Records, Innova Recording, SEAMUS records, New Amsterdam Records, and on self-released albums by Ludovico Ensemble and Kirsten Volness. As collaborative artist and ensemble musician, Ms. Hartunian regularly performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Sound Icon, Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Guerilla Opera, and Ludovico Ensemble, and recently performed as guest artist with the Lydian Quartet, Arneis Quartet, and The Rhythm Method. For recordings, photos, and news, visit www.lilithartunian.com.
Yukiko Takagi received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory where she studied with Veronica Jochum and Stephen Drury. While a student at the Conservatory she was selected to perform in several Honors programs and appeared regularly with the NEC Contemporary Ensemble. Ms. Takagi has performed with the orchestra of the Bologna Teatro Musicale, the John Zorn Ensemble, the Auros Group for New Music, Santa Cruz New Music Works, the Harvard Group for New Music and the Chameleon Arts Ensemble.
She performs regularly with the Eliza Miller Dance Company and the Ruth Birnberg Dance Company and gives frequent duo-piano concerts with Stephen Drury. Ms. Takagi is a featured performer with the Callithumpian Consort. Her recording of Colin McPhee’s Balinese Cerimonial Dances was released by MusicMasters. At New England Conservatory Yukiko Takagi has appeared on the First Monday series at Jordan Hall, and is a teacher and guest artist for NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance.
Back
