EMF Presents THE EXTENDED PIANO FESTIVAL: WORKS FOR THE DISKLAVIER

Presented by Electronic Music Foundation, The Extended Piano Festival presents a series of concerts and installations highlighting the unique and rarely composed-for Disklavier. A robotic, MIDI controlled, grand piano, the Disklavier allows composers to create works with techniques and dynamics beyond human capabilities and to be presented without a performer. These characteristics make it an instrument challenging for composers and particularly qualified for installed works.

On Friday, April 1 at 8 p.m., Elliott Sharp will curate an evening of old and new works for the Disklavier, displaying the instrument's wide range of possibilities. The evening will feature:
* Luke DuBois: Equilibrium (Premiere). The work is an attempt to leverage the Disklavier to generate a visual language that corresponds to performative action.
* Lukas Ligeti: Premiere
* Stefano Bassanese's Arbelos (U.S. Premiere), performed by Jenny Lin on piano, assisted by Veniero Rizzardi.
* Nicolas Collins' The Talking Cure, for recitation, electronics and Disklavier. Performed by Nicolas Collins on recitation and electronics.
* Miya Masaoka: Balls, an arrangement for Laser Koto, Disklavier and extra large Ping Pong balls. Originally commissioned by pianist Kathleen Supové in 2007, the work is based on the bouncing, rolling, and ricocheting of balls, both on a surface and inside the piano on the strings.
* Elliott Sharp: Nolnoc for bass clarinet, Disklavier, and electronics. Originally performed at the first Extended Piano Festival curated by Sharp at the Knitting Factory in 1996, the work is a tribute to Conlon Nancarrow, whose pioneering work on piano rolls paved the way for such instruments as the Disklavier.
* Pamela Z's pf, a structured improvisational work for voice, electronics, disklavier, and ultrasound controller. Pamela Z will also perform a version of Unknown Person (from Baggage Allowance) with an added diskavier interlude.

On Saturday, April 2nd at 8 p.m., Steve Horowitz will celebrate the release of Stations of the Breath: Music for Disklavier (2010) - a disc highlighting the composer's activities on the Yamaha Disklavier, both in solo performance/composition and in duet settings. Live performers include Dave Eggar on cello, Elliott Sharp on guitar/bass clarinet, and Michael Evans on percussion. "The moods are straightforward, the ideas are right on the surface, and the execution is well worth experiencing" (Sequenza21).

In addition to the two nights of performances, Sharp and Horowitz will curate a body of installed works for the Disklavier to be presented for audiences to visit at their leisure during daytime hours, on April 2 & 3. These will include pieces by composers Dan Becker, Anthony Coleman, Fred Frith, Annie Gosfield, Seth Horvitz, Dafna Natalli, Veniero Rizzardi, Frank Rothkamm, Carl Stone, Hans Tammen, and more.

WHEN: April 1-3, 2011
Performances on April 1 and 2 are at 8 p.m.
Gallery hours: Saturday from 12-4 p.m.; Sunday from 12-6 p.m.

TICKETS: $15/$10 for students/seniors and EMF members.
The installations are free of charge and open to the public.

INFO: For more information on the event, visit the EMF Productions website <http://www.emfproductions.org>
Or email emfproductions@emf.org, or call (888) 749-9998.

Yamaha Disklavier grand piano provided courtesy of Yamaha Corporation of America.

About the artists

Steve Horowitz's 30-year career integrates his experiences as a bandleader with his explorations as a multi-faceted composer. Horowitz has a large catalog of music for traditional and unusual ensembles such as string quartet, woodwind quartet, orchestra, Disklavier, solo contrabass flute, and electro-acoustic chamber ensemble. His music has been heard at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, The Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and The Miller Theater and The Kitchen in NYC. He frequently collaborates with other artists - joining forces with an eclectic variety of musicians such as electric guitar wizards Elliott Sharp and Henry Kaiser, saxophone greats Lenny Pickett and Ralph Carney, The Clubfoot Orchestra, Glen Spearman, acoustic bassist Tatsu Aoki, and the Balkan music ensemble Zhaba. In addition to his work in chamber and concert music, Horowitz writes music for dance, film, television, cartoons, and interactive media (video games). He wrote the score to the award winning film Super Size Me and served as music supervisor and lead composer for the television show I Bet You Will (MTV). Horowitz's audio expertise was honored in 1996 with a Grammy award for his engineering work on the compact disc True Life Blues, the Songs of Bill Monroe, winner of the best Bluegrass album 1996, and in 2003 with a Webby for his work with Nickelodeon Digital. Steve can be found working and touring with his various projects, and has released 15 compact discs to date.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Elliott Sharp has been a central figure in the experimental music scene in New York City for over thirty years and currently leads four ensemble projects: Carbon, Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane. He has pioneered techniques of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction and has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Ensemble Modern, Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Radio-Symphony of Frankfurt, koto virtuoso Michiyo Yagi, pop singer Debbie Harry, computer artist Perry Hoberman, blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples, jazz greats Jack deJohnette and Sonny Sharrock, and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Jahjouka from Morocco. Sharp's work has been featured at festivals worldwide, including the 2008 New Music Stockholm festival, the 2007 Hessischer Rundfunk Klangbiennale, and the 2003 and 2006 Venice Biennales. He has composed for video artist Nam June Paik and for filmmakers Toni Dove, Jonathan Berman, and Illppo Pohjola. His sci-fi opera for teenage performers, About Us was commissioned by the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and premiered in July 2010. Sharp's work is the subject of a documentary film, Doing The Don't by Bert Shapiro.

Electronic Music Foundation (EMF)'s mission is to explore the creative and cultural potential in the convergence of music, sound, technology, and science, and to apply what is learned towards the betterment of human life. EMF organizes events, presents and commissions innovative work, publishes CDs and DVDs, supports research, develops collaborative projects with partners worldwide, and maintains websites on the history and current practice of electronic music. In short, EMF provides models and resources for creativity and encourages the development and exchange of new ideas throughout the world.