Sondheim's Works Get Revamped by Marsalis, Sheik and More in Anthony de Mare's LIAISONS at Symphony Space, 11/19

On Thursday, November 19 (8 pm) pianist Anthony de Mare brings the third and final installment of his inspired LIAISONS project to Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

LIAISONS brings leading classical, jazz, music theater, pop, indie, and film composers together to reimagine their favorite Stephen Sondheim songs as solo piano works.

The program will include New York premieres of works by Wynton Marsalis, Andy Akiho, Duncan Sheik, Jherek Bischoff, and de Mare himself. There will also be encores of pieces by Steve Reich, Paul Moravec, Kenji Bunch, Mason Bates, David Rakowski and David Shire, among others. The works draw on famous and lesser-known Sondheim songs from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, SWEENEY TODD, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, FOLLIES, COMPANY and other shows.

The concert will be followed by a CD signing with de Mare and the six attending composers.

The following pieces will be performed (composers attending are marked with an asterisk*):

- Mary Ellen Childs* - Now, based on Now/Later/Soon

- David Shire* - Love Is In the Air

- Derek Bermel - Sorry/Grateful

- Jherek Bischoff (NY premiere) - The Ballad of Guiteau

- Mason Bates - Very Put Together, based on Putting It Together

- David Rakowski - The Ladies Who Lunch

- Wynton Marsalis (NY premiere) - That Old Piano Roll

- Steve Reich* - Finishing the Hat (2 pianos)

- Andy Akiho* (NY premiere) - Into the Woods

- Duncan Sheik (NY premiere) - Johanna in Space

- Eric Rockwell* - You Could Drive a Person Crazy

- Paul Moravec - I Think About You, based on Losing My Mind

- Kenji Bunch* - The Demon Barber, based on The Ballad of Sweeney Todd

- Anthony de Mare (NY premiere) - Sunday in the Park - Passages, based on Sunday in the Park with George

Tickets are $65/$47/$35 depending on location, $52/$38/$28 for Members, and $25 for those 30 and under, available at www.symphonyspace.org.

The previous two installments of LIAISONS at Symphony Space took place in 2012 and 2013. This performance coincides with the release of the entire LIAISONS collection as a triple-disc set on the ECM New Series label. Reviewing the set for All About Jazz, John Kelman wrote, "There have been other tributes to the music of Stephen Sondheim, but none with as simple yet adventurous a premise as LIAISONS: Re- Imagining Sondheim from the Piano... There is no other tribute that gets to the heart of the now mid-octogenarian's music with such accuracy - and, over the course of 205 minutes, with such precise pointillism. Beyond the stellar compositional contributions and beyond de Mare's similarly superlative delivery, LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano is, quite simply, a recording of such resounding significance that it demands to be heard."

LIAISONS marks the first time that Sondheim songs have been formally adapted for solo piano. With the composer's blessing, de Mare selected a remarkable and diverse roster of artists from around the world to re-imagine a Sondheim song of their choosing, resulting in a wide variety of settings. Says Anthony de Mare, "I wanted to show Sondheim's influence on composers of many different genres and I also wanted to enhance and add to the piano repertoire with a whole new body of work." As liner note author, and Sondheim authority Mark Eden Horowitz points out, LIAISONS is "an exploration of how music communicates, not just to an audience, but among composers."

De Mare encouraged the composers to choose whichever song most compelled them, with the only criteria being a maximum length of ten minutes and adherence to the song's basic melodic material. Composers put their own spin on recognizable classics like Send in the Clowns, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd and Being Alive, to name a few, but also on lesser-known works including Sorry-Grateful, Someone in a Tree and A Bowler Hat, among others. "Each piece represents a totally unique union of the composer's individual style with Sondheim's underlying substance," comments de Mare. "These aren't songs without words - they are complete musical compositions in their own right that reveal Sondheim's unparalleled capacity for melody and musical architecture."

The LIAISONS composers are: Andy Akiho, Mason Bates, Eve Beglarian, Derek Bermel, Jherek Bischoff, William Bolcom, Jason Robert Brown, Kenji Bunch, Mary Ellen Childs, Michael Daugherty, Peter Golub, Ricky Ian Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Jake Heggie, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson, Gabriel Kahane, Phil Kline, Tania Leon, Ricardo Lorenz, Anthony de Mare, Wynton Marsalis, Paul Moravec, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Thomas Newman, David Rakowski, Steve Reich, Eric Rockwell, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Frederic Rzewski, Rodney Sharman, Duncan Sheik, David Shire, Bernadette Speach, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Nils Vigeland.

Anthony De Mare, born in Rochester, New York, is a renowned champion of contemporary music. He pioneered the genre of the speaking-singing pianist nearly 25 years ago with the premiere of Frederic Rzewski's De Profundis, and his versatility has inspired the creation of over 60 new works by composers including Meredith Monk, David del Tredici, Paul Moravec, Aaron Jay Kernis, Fred Hersch and Jerome Kitzke. With LIAISONS he has added another 27 composers to the list of those he has commissioned, and another 36 compositions to the contemporary piano repertoire - plus his own arrangement Sunday In The Park - Passages which brings the LIAISONS three-CD set to its conclusion.

Symphony Space traces its beginnings to a free marathon concert, Wall to Wall Bach, held in 1978 and organized by co-founders Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller. The music marathon then drew thousands of visitors and has since become one of the organization's signature events. Today Symphony Space presents more than 600 events each season, including music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings. Some of its

best known programs include Selected Shorts, a reading of short stories by stars of stage and screen, and one of the most popular series on public radio; National Theatre Live, broadcasting the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world; and Just Kidding, one of the most talked about family entertainment series around town. Uptown Showdown has been called "New York's best comedy series" by New York magazine. For more information, visit symphonyspace.org.

Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Box office hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1 pm - 6 pm, open two hours prior to performances and events. Tickets can also be purchased through www.symphonyspace.org, or by calling 212/864-5400.