Performance as Process with Conrad Tao
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FREE LIVE-STREAM - Click HERE for more information
2020-21 Kaufman Music Center Artist-in-Residence Conrad Tao is a pianist, composer, Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and alumnus of Special Music School. A series of eight FREE monthly digital Performance As Process events on Thursday evenings from September through April invites audiences into his creative practice as he develops programming for his May 6 Ecstatic Music performance in Merkin Hall. Streamed from his home in Manhattan, these events will give the audience a deeper look into his work in piano, electronics, composition and improvisation as the program for his May concert comes into focus.
Conrad says, "I'm so excited to be an artist-in-residence at Kaufman Music Center for this season! I'm looking forward to listening and working and thinking with KMC students about the sociality of music, methods of practice that open up further creative avenues, and the substance of a concert program, among other questions. It is rare to find an educational institution with a structure that so encourages students' varied interests, and I can't wait to dig in. In addition to exploring these topics collaboratively with students, I'm grateful to have the chance to present regular performance-talks leading up to a concert presentation in May, in which I'll be sharing materials and thoughts as they evolve over time. I believe in performance being a part of one's ongoing practice, not just the shiny, well-packaged end result of said practice; I hope these regular presentations can be a manifestation of that."
Announcing 2021 Visionary Awards Recipient
2021 First Commission
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Paloma Alonso
"2020"
Darian Donovan Thomas, violin
Shayna Dunkelman, percussion
Angélica Negrón, mentor
Paloma Alonso is a New York City native. She is 13 years old and attends the Léman Manhattan Preparatory School. Her parents, both classical concert pianists, were her first piano teachers. Alonso cites her Cuban father and Albanian mother as major inspirations for introducing her to music of all styles and genres. She began studying cello six years ago with Juilliard-trained teacher Yves Dharamraj and also pursues her passion for dance at the school of New York Theatre Ballet where she has trained rigorously since the age of four. Alonso joined the New York Philharmonic Young Composers Program in 2017. She commented that "This wonderful program opened a whole new world of expression to me. Composing is another tool that allows me to be expressive in a beautiful and artistic way". In December 2019, on a Young People's Concert, the Philharmonic performed Alonso's Sweating Bullets under the baton of its Music Director Jaap van Zweeden. The orchestral work was scheduled to be performed by the Philharmonic again in April of 2020 but, was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.