On July 14, 2024 the Piano Spheres family lost one of our own. Sarah Gibson was a brilliant pianist, a fierce composer, and an inspirational educator. She was half of the piano duo HOCKET who joined Piano Spheres as Core Artists in 2019, but she has been part of the Piano Spheres family for over a decade as both an Emerging Artist and Guest Artist. Sarah was a dedicated friend and colleague, an inspiring teacher, and a bright light in our tightly knit new music community. Please join the Piano Spheres family as we come together to celebrate Sarah with heartfelt performances of her music.

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for Sarah

Colburn School

Pianists Gloria Cheng and Ralph van Raat pay homage to Pierre Boulez’s legacy in his centennial year with a captivating duo-recital. Born on March 26, 1925, the unparalleled French composer, conductor, and visionary transformed post-war contemporary music, leaving an indelible mark on the future of music. The duo will perform his iconic Structures, Livre I, and take solo turns including a work written for Cheng in 1996. Along with works by Frank Zappa, Magnus Lindberg, and Morton Feldman, this program celebrates Boulez’s broad musical connections, from his well-documented mutual respect with Zappa to his complex relationship with Feldman, offering a profound reflection on his impact and the cross-pollination of musical ideas across generations.

Celebrating Pierre Boulez

UCLA Nimoy Theater

Music has always reflected the times we live in.  Troubled times often produce music of Empathy, Compassion, and what the late civil rights leader John Lewis called “Good Trouble.”  On Saturday May 10th at 1PM, Piano Spheres presents pianists Andres Jaramillo performing music from his program “A Journey of Immigrants,”  Althea Waites playing “Troubled Water” by Margaret Bonds, Thomas Kotcheff performing “Songs of Insurrection” by Frederick Rzewski, and Vicki Ray, Aron Kallay and Mark Robson playing contemporary arrangements of iconic American songs and anthems by Vicki Ray and Mark Robson. We promise to let the music do the talking!

Empathy, Compassion and Good Trouble – A Special Event!

Aron Kallay presents two new commissions written in memory of friends and family. Marek Zebrowski’s Capriccio notturno was written in memory of Aron’s grandmother, Cecilia Viola Kallay. Daniel Allas’ Analysis of a Dream was written in memory of Piano Sphere’s very own Sarah Gibson. On the rest of the program, Aron is joined by friends to play music that explores birds, warped time, the infinite, the play of light and dark on canvas, and wickedness without consequence.`

Aron Kallay – Friends and Family

Emerging Artist Thomas Mellan presents Collective Hysteria: a celebration on Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday. Boulez is synonymous with music of era-defining extremes, showcasing brutal violence and sensual tenderness often in the same breath. The program centers around Boulez’s monumental Second Piano Sonata, from 1948. As Boulez said: “History as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation but of destruction – even while cherishing what is destroyed.” In this spirit, Thomas will present a new original work titled “Rituel”, honoring Boulez, for piano and electronics. Premieres of new 30 for 30 piano pieces by organist/composer Rashaan Allwood, underground death metal legend Colin Marston and Ukrainian virtuoso violinist Orest Smovzh round out this celebration of a 20th century icon.

Thomas Mellan: Collective Hysteria

The concert features two new large-scale works by important international composers Taylor Brook and Thomas Meadowcroft. Meadowcroft’s “All Possible Combinations” is the next installment in a series of works focused on aspects of ‘Deep Easy Listening’, which attempts to reconcile immersive modes of listening outside of commodified time. “Nox” by Taylor Brook combines the composer’s unique approach to the integration of electronic and digital media as he explores the passage of time through a single night in a way that draws on unconscious states where logic becomes fuzzy and imagination goes to unusual and seemingly impossible places. Both Brook and Meadowcroft are 30 for 30 composers.  Below is a NEW video clip of Nox by Taylor Brook showing the electronic and digital video effects featured in his composition.

Brook and Meadowcroft

Colombian American pianist Andrés Jaramillo is our Leonard Stein Resident Artist for 2024/25. Dr. Jaramillo specializes in the music by contemporary Latinx composers. Every composer on this program (including four world premieres and three 30 for 30 compositions) is or was an immigrant.  Through these solo piano works, Andrés explores the myriad emotions, perspectives, and approaches inherent in the immigrant experience, intertwining the composers’ own cultural backgrounds with those of their new homes. Jaramillo will perform three new compositions by 30 for 30 composers Paola Márquez, Jorge Salazar and Josh Rodriguez.

Andrés Jaramillo – A Journey of Immigrants

Piano Spheres’ founding pianist Susan Svrček was known for her elegant and insightful performances. Her untimely passing in 2022 foreshadowed the loss of her husband of 32 years, influential composer Frederick Lesemann who wrote much of his later music for her and whose music she championed. This concert is a rare opportunity to hear all of Piano Spheres’ Core and Emeritus Artists on the same stage at the same time! They will perform works by Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage often performed by Svrček, as well as music by Lesemann written for her. This concert is a love letter from Susan and Rick’s colleagues, students and friends, three of whom (composers Donald Crockett, Thomas Flaherty and Bill Alves) have written pieces for this concert as part of the Piano Spheres ‘30 for 30’ commissioning program.

for Susan and Rick

One California Plaza

“Spielfreude,” the joy of playing, describes the sheer physical and emotive pleasure of performing at the keyboard. Mark Robson’s recital offers a program that largely takes its cue from this idea, with pieces from a range composers including Ligeti, Glass, Cowell, Messiaen, Aldo Clementi and Ginastera, with premieres by Peter Knell, Hannah Rice and Daniel Rothman. Also featured will be Schoenberg’s Zwei Klavierstücke, Op. 33 in honor of the composer’s 150th birth anniversary.

Mark Robson: Spielfreude

October 20, 2024 marks the 150th birthday of America’s great original composer Charles Ives. Growing up in New England as the son of a bandmaster, Ives developed a uniquely American compositional voice.   His music includes ragtime, gospel hymns, parade marches, and wild, visionary dissonance, all woven into a sound never before heard in classical concert music. World renowned guest artist Stephen Drury will celebrate the Ives sesquicentennial two days after Ives’ birthday with a special performance of Ives’ complete sonatas for piano, including the monumental “Concord” sonata with its musical visions of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcott family, as well as the quirky and ironic “Three Page Sonata.”  30 for 30 composer Paul Beaudoin composed a piece that “suggests some of the wilder, fantastical adventures into the half-childlike, half fairy-like phantasmal realm” of the Concord Sonata. If you don’t see a form to puchase tickets below, please CLICK HERE!

Stephen Drury: Charles Ives @ 150

A special fundraising event featuring concert works by Hollywood ﬁlm composers to help raise funds for Piano Spheres’ 30th Anniversary season in 2024/25.  There will be music, food, drink and exciting announcements!

Hollywood Spheres – A Special Event

HOCKET revives the silent film era with their new project Photoplay Music: New works for the Silent Film Era, a cinematic concert experience. Featuring icons of French Surrealist Silent Film, Photoplay Music features newly commissioned works for three classic films by some of today’s most innovative composers Ian Dicke, José Martínez, and Gemma Peacocke.

HOCKET – Photoplay Music

Piano Spheres Emerging Artist Shaoai Ashley Zhang presents “Notes of Crimson,” an evening of contemporary compositions evoking the rich colors of solo piano. From Isang Yun’s brooding Interludium A to Luciano Berio’s monumental Sequenza IV, this concert offers a tour de force of the instrument. Featured will be the world premiere of a Piano Spheres commission by Fernanda Aoki Navarro, as well as the namesake of the program, crimson by Rebecca Saunders.

Shaoai Ashley Zhang – Notes of Crimson

Dreamscapes takes the listener through landscapes both real and imagined. Inspired by music that brings together both the natural and fantastical, along with her own love for the outdoors, Vahala will perform works by John Luther Adams, Juhi Bansal, John Corigliano, Corey Dundee (new commission), Kate Moore, Gabriella Smith, Daniel Temkin (West Coast premiere) and Gillian Whitehead.

Katelyn Vahala – Dreamscapes

Equal temperament broke the world. This concert will fix it. Including works by Alexander Elliott Miller, Isaac Schankler, and Ben Johnston, with a new work for solo synthesizer by Matthew Brown and a new chamber concerto for retuned piano and American Gamelan by Akshaya Avril Tucker. Featuring Brightwork cellist Maggie Parkins, and guest ensemble Gamelan Light Streams.

Aron Kallay – The Blur of Time and Memory

2220 Arts + Archives

Guest pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee will present “La Voix du Pianiste” or Voice of the Pianist.  Ms. Lee will present a program that features speaking and singing with keyboards.  Performing on piano, toy piano, harpsichord, and other percussion instruments, Genevieve will be utilizing her voice in three languages.  Works will include world premieres by Chris Castro and Livia Malossi Bottignole, plus Gao Ping’s Daydreams, and Kurt Rohde’s Famous Last Words for speaking keyboard player and assorted items.

Genevieve Feiwen Lee – The Voice of the Pianist

Pianist Vicki Ray presents Nacht und Träume – an evening that explores liminal states of consciousness through the music of Cage, Schubert and Berg alongside new works by Rachel Beetz, Andrew McIntosh, Noah Meites and Bill Alves. Using different keyboards, Ray – with guest soprano Elissa Johnston – will probe the territories of night and dreams using piano, prepared piano, synthesizer along with video and electronics.  For information about parking please click HERE

Piano Spheres

Jul 14, 2025

for Sarah

May 30, 2025

Celebrating Pierre Boulez

Piano Spheres