FOUR HANDED FANTASIES WITH JED DISTLER (Tue-Wed 8:30PM) At Cornelia Street Café

Tue Aug 10 8:30PM
FOUR HANDED FANTASIES WITH JED DISTLER
(Jed Distler, piano; Jung Lin, piano)

Three of today’s most forceful yet utterly distinct piano personalities preside over the Cornelia Street Café’s Yamaha grand (loaned by Jed, by the way) over two evenings.
Jed Distler and Jung Lin reunite to collaborate with Mozart’s Sonata in D Major K. 381 and Schubert’s Fantasia in F Minor D. 940, plus solo works by Schumann, Rzewski, Godowsky, Rachmaninov & Distler.Jed Distler and Jung Lin participated in Cornelia Street’s 2009 outdoor Make Music New York premier of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato for Four Pianos. They join up again this summer for two pillars of the duet repertoire by Mozart and Schubert, with solos in between. The Simon Mulligan/Jed Distler duo, by contrast, is based on both pianists’ informal Café encounters, where they’ve been known to sight-read overtures and improvise on just about anything at the drop of a hat.

Known for her poetic and virtuosic pianism, Taiwan native Jung Lin conducted her own orchestral works at age 12, won numerous competitions in her native country, and was featured on Taiwan’s major news program “90 minutes.” At sixteen her symphonic poem, “The Black Wedding” was given its premiere by The Juilliard Symphony under Miguel Harth-Bedoya. In addition to numerousall-Chopin recitals played all over the world, Jung’s fervent and highly acclaimed championing of Nicolas Medtner’s resulted in a forthcoming recording for Naxos. In addition to three New York Botanical Garden recitals broadcast on WQXR, other recent appearances include Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bargemusic, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival.
Cover $10

Wed Aug 11 8:30PM
FOUR HANDED FANTASIES WITH JED DISTLER
(Jed Distler, piano; Simon Mulligan, piano)

Three of today’s most forceful yet utterly distinct piano personalities preside over the Cornelia Street Café’s Yamaha grand (loaned by Jed, by the way) over two evenings.
Jed Distler and Simon Mulligan dust off the old piano bench in search of long-forgotten arrangements of popular classics and justly obscure opera potpourris, take audience requests, improvise a little, and serve up Satie’s four-handed Parade.Described by The Times of London as ‘the most abundantly gifted of pianists’, Simon Mulligan has more than 20 CDs to his credit, including Martinu’s Triple Concerto (conducted by Yehudi Menuhin), Rozsa’s Spellbound concerto with the BBC Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, Chopin’s Nocturnes, Ned Rorem’s Second Piano Concerto, and solo works by legendary pianist Alexis Weissenberg. He has premiered works by Hans Werner Henze, James MacMillan, Tobias Picker, Mark Anthony Turnage and Paul Moravec. In 2007, Simon was one of the youngest recipients to be awarded the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music for his musical achievements.

Spoken Word

Tue Aug 10
6:00PM “DEAR SUZANNE” IN WORDS MUSIC & SLIDES
(poet Eve Rifkah; Michael Milligan, guitar)
Michael Milligan has been making music as long as he can remember. Since his parents wouldn’t let him have a drum kit he tortured them with stringed instruments. Guitarist for The Thin Middle and 3 Shy, he counts among his many influences West African griots, flamenco gypsies, garage band saints and funk shamans. What kind of music does he make? Something nameless that sounds nothing like the previous list. This will be an acoustic guitar performance.
In reading from her book Outcasts, poet Eve Rifkah brings you into the world of the patients of the Penikese Island Leper Hospital breathing out the voices for the long forgotten, stigmatized people exiled to a tiny, bit of island off the coast of Cape Cod, MA.

In her book Dear Suzanne she recreates the life of model/artist Suzanne Valadon, the favorite model of Renoir, Lautrec and many other impressionists, who also became a highly respected force in the art world. Valadon was the first woman in Paris to exhibit in the Salon and paint the male nude and children of the underclass. Reading is accompanied by a visual presentation.
. Cover $10

http://www.everifkahwriter.com

Called “an altogether extraordinary pianist” by Michael Redmond in the Newark Star-Ledger, Jed Distler has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Virgil Thomson, Simeon ten Holt, Andrew Thomas, Lois V Vierk, Wendy Mae Chambers, Richard Rodney Bennett, Virko Baley and other luminaries. Jed has given solo concerts in Italy, Switzerland, England, and all across the US, and his work can be found on the Bridge, Decca, Nonesuch,Point, CRI and New World labels. A new solo CD Meditate with the Masters features his own soothing, relaxing piano renditions of classical music’s greatest hits. As ComposersCollaborative’s artistic director, Jed founded the Cornelia Street Café’s long-running Serial Underground series, and is hosting Hammered, a New York Public Radio show devoted to all genres of keyboard music. He also writes CD reviews for Gramophone and Classicstoday.com.an be found on the is also a passionate composer and arranger, writing for film, television and his own jazz quartet. He also writes CD reviews for Gramophone and www.Classicstoday.com.
Cover $10