Since its founding in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, the world-renowned Arditti Quartet has inspired hundreds of composers to write groundbreaking works specifically for the ensemble, among them School of Music director and faculty composer Joël-Francois Durand, whose connection to the group goes back decades. 

In this free concert following the Quartet’s Concerning the same work, The Toronto Star observes: 'The music pulsed with fabulous rhythmic and tonal effects that the Ardittis shaped into palpable 3-D soundscapes. Clarke's mastery of dissonance and overtone, aided by the Ardittis' playing, created sound waves that are not usually heard in a quartet program.'

Durand: Quatuor à cordes no. 4, Musica fict(iv)a II (2026) 
Like my second (2020) and third (2024) string quartets , this fourth quartet makes extensive use of “first order beats,” an acoustic phenomenon which naturally occurs when two tones of very close frequency are played at the same time. When these two tones approach the unison, one can perceive pulsations (beats) of ever slower frequency. Musica fict(iv)a II is based on musical materials from Musica fict(iv)a, Six pièces et deux interludes, for wind quintet. Four of the five movements of the string quartet (I., II, IV and V) are dervied from movements of the wind quintet, while the 3rd movement, the Prologue and the two Interludes present new materials that puts the other movements in a new perspective.

The title, Musica fict(iv)a, refers to both the notion of 'outside' notes found in the musical theory of musica ficta from the middle ages, and to the 'fictive' character of the beats produced by these outside notes. In parallel to the medieval notion of Musica ficta, the reference here is to the fact that the tonal inflections that generate beats don’t so much create a microtonal language as they are explorations of the musical potential of beats, in particular as we approach the unison. In that sense, they operate outside the conventional notion of intervals. Additionally, since the beats are not actually produced by the musicians (the performers just play two different, closely related tones), but result from the acoustic phenomenon of interference, one could argue that the sound they create is not 'real': it exists in another, non-material dimension. The beats produce a 'fictive,' but clearly perceived musical line above the more traditional musical gestures.
 
One the main reasons why I find this particularly interesting is because these two types of discourse, the fictive and the traditional ones, require very different types of listening, different types of attention. In order to perceive these beats, one must almost “not hear” the tones that are produced by the instruments, but concentrate on the resulting beats that emanate from their combination. This requires shifting our listening attention from one level to the other, as if listening to some sort of new polyphony. The beats are a very delicate acoustic phenomenon—often much fainter than the main tones. They are also fairly unstable because they rely on the performers maintaining an absolutely steady intonation, something that is almost impossible to achieve for a long period of time: on string instruments, in particular, the pitch can vary minutely with the pressure of the bow on the string, or with the slightest movement of the finger on the string that is being stopped. These tiny changes are usually not heard because with larger intervals, the ear adapts to the context—“understands the pitch,” so to speak. But the production of beats requires extremely small intervallic differences and, in this world, these changes in frequency can alter the effect dramatically. Far from being an inconvenience, I value this evanescence, this uncertainty, both in the production and the perception, as an essential part of the musical language based on this acoustic phenomenon. This fourth string quartet, like the preceding two, invites us to bring our listening attention to a very focused kind of concentration, inside the movement of the sound.

Ferneyhough: String Quartet No. 3 (1987)
The final form of this quartet is quite different from that which I had planned at the outset. Initially (several years before the main period of composition) I had sketched out a five-movement structure; in the event this was finally reduced to a two-movement layout, in which the second movement contains superimposed elements of several other movemental types. The change may be attributed, in large part, to questions of musical balance: at the same time the altered perspective permitted me to regard the piece very much as a record of two very different reactions to a state of extreme inner crisis. Since both movements, very different in regard of contents, are approximately of the same length, I thought of them as polar opposites, reflecting, by their very intransigent extremity, the empty spaces in between.
The first movement moves in an almost frozen, dazed, autistic world of isolated fragments, partial, disconnected repetitions and sudden, unmotivated outbursts. The more than twenty basic textural elements are constantly being mutated, erased and recombined in a fashion which practically eliminate the possibility of establishing a singled underlying continuity. At the same time, the overall form reflects closely the self-preoccupied nature of its materials in a dual mirroring strategy: on the one hand, the individual sections are interlocked in a complex pattern of subsurface symmetries, on the other, the final third of the movement reflects the patterns and texture-types of the first two thirds by replacing each element with its 'complementary' element from the opposite end of the spectrum.
The second and final movement explodes into an iridescent flood of irate images, almost cadence-like in its constantly changing instrumental combinations of wildly fluctuating superpositions of texture and tempo. The complexity of this movement resides largely in the fact that a number of movements have been, in effect, compacted together, each of them having been 'damaged' in greater or lesser degree by the impact. Whilst the attentive listener may well discover residual features of a rondo structure, this should be understood less as a consciously imposed dictate than as a reflection of the fact that at least three distinct processual strata are running concurrently, albeit surfacing into the domain of the audible only at certain precalculated moments.
String Quartet No 3 is dedicated to the members of the Arditti Quartet, and was commissioned with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain -- B. Ferneyhough.

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Biographies

The Arditti Quartet enjoys a world-wide reputation for their spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music. Many hundreds of string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by first violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974. Many of these works have left a permanent mark on 20th century repertoire and have given the Arditti Quartet a firm place in music history. World premieres of quartets by composers such as Abrahamsen, Ades, Andriessen, Aperghis, Birtwistle, Britten, Cage, Carter, Denisov, Dillon, Dufourt, Dusapin, Fedele, Ferneyhough, Francesconi, Gubaidulina, Guerrero, Harvey, Hosokawa, Kagel, Kurtag, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Maderna, Manoury, Nancarrow, Reynolds, Rihm, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Stockhausen and Xenakis and hundreds more show the wide range of music in the Arditti Quartet’s repertoire.

The ensemble believes that close collaboration with composers is vital to the process of interpreting modern music and therefore attempts to work with every composer it plays.
The players’ commitment to educational work is indicated by their masterclasses and workshops for young performers and composers all over the world.

The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features over 200 CDs.

42 CD’s were released as part of the ensemble’s series on Naive Montaigne. This series set the trend, by presenting numerous contemporary composer features, recorded in their presence as well as the first digital recordings of the complete Second Viennese School’s chamber music for strings. The quartet has recorded for more than 20 other CD labels and together this CD collection is the most extensive available of quartet literature in the last 40 years. To name just a few, Berio, Cage, Carter, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Nono, Rihm, the complete chamber music of Xenakis and Stockhausen’s infamous Helicopter Quartet. Some of the most recent releases with the French company Aeon include profiles of Birtwistle, Gerhard, Ferneyhough Paredes and Dusapin, and with Winter and Winter Abrahamsen.

Over the past 30 years, the ensemble has received many prizes for its work. They have won the Deutsche Schallplatten Preis several times and the Gramophone Award for the best recording of contemporary music in 1999 (Elliott Carter) in 2002 (Harrison Birtwistle) and in 2018 (Pascal Dusapin). In 2004 they were awarded the ‘Coup de Coeur’ prize by the Academie Charles Cros in France for their exceptional contribution to the dissemination of contemporary music. The prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize was awarded to them in 1999 for ‘lifetime achievement’ in music. They remain to this day, the only ensemble ever to receive it.

The complete archive of the Arditti quartet is housed in the Sacher Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.

Members of the UW Wind Ensemble (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) perform music by W.A. Mozart, Claude Arrieu, Joan Tower and others. With Yuman Wu and Joshua Michael Smith, assistant conductors. 

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Biographies

Note: This event has been canceled.

Pianist Joanne Polk, faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, performs a recital of solo piano works by distinguished American composer Amy Beach. 

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Biography

Pianist Joanne Polk was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label.  Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin.  A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle.  

The first recording in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording.  Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting.  The sixth volume of the series, Morning Glories, joins Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber music works by Amy Beach.  Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.”  American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out.  We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.”

Prior to recording the complete piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker.  This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on Performance Today on New York Public Radio.  Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont.  Her CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award.  Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianoforte, was released on the Newport Classic label.  Ms. Polk’s solo piano CD, titled Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, was released on the Bridge Records label.

In 2014, Ms. Polk’s CD titled The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.  The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station WQXR and debuted at #1 on the Classical Billboard Chart.  In 2017, Joanne Polk’s CD, Gershwin & Wild, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label and features Earl Wild’s transcriptions of Gershwin songs, as well as Wild’s Piano Sonata.  American Record Guide called Ms. Polk’s playing on this CD, “plush and dreamily attractive…”

In 2014, Joanne Polk was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.”  Ms. Polk’s profile focused on her work promoting the music of women composers.

Ms. Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music.  She has given master classes at many summer festivals and universities across the country, and in 2018 completed a five-city, three-week concert and master class tour of Taiwan and China.  

In 2019, two of Ms. Polk’s CDs, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn and The Flatterer: Solo Piano Music by Cécile Chaminade, were included on New York City’s classical radio station WQXR’s Essential Piano Recordings.

In February 2020, Ms. Polk’s CD Louise Farrenc Etudes and Variations for Solo Piano, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.  In December 2020, Ms. Polk’s Farrenc CD was on The New York Times “Best Classical Music of 2020” list:  

'The music of Louise Farrenc, professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory for three decades after 1842, has been taped before, but never quite so well as in Joanne Polk’s sample of her solo piano music...' -- New York Times [Best Classical Music of 2020]

Ms. Polk’s 2023 recording titled The Silence Between the Notes: Louise Farrenc Solo Piano Music Volume 2, was released on September 1, 2023, on the Steinway & Sons Label.

In December 2023 and January 2024, Ms. Polk traveled to China on an 8-city concert and master class tour.  In July 2024, Ms. Polk performed recitals and masterclasses at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.  

In September 2024, Ms. Polk’s second volume of solo piano music by Cécile Chaminade, titled Nostalgia, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.

American Record Guide January/February 2025 review of Nostalgia:

“Polk has championed female composers all through her admirable discography. She has brought a wealth of great and enjoyable music to our attention, most of which has lived in relative obscurity since it was written. It would all be for naught if not for the exceptional musical insight and flawless piano technique she brings to these works.
It is so good to hear world-class pianists like Polk choose a recital of Chaminade music and play it with all of the seriousness one would expect if the program were music by European male composers of the time.”
Polk’s third CD of solo piano music by Cécile Chaminade will be released later in 2026.  Upcoming performances include solo and chamber music concerts featuring the music Amy Beach (1867-1944), in celebration of the 250th anniversary of America and the first successful female American composer.

To find out more about Ms. Polk, please visit her website at

Note: This event has been canceled.

Guest pianist Joanne Polk, faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, leads a master class with UW piano students. 

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Biography

Pianist Joanne Polk was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label.  Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin.  A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle.  

The first recording in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording.  Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting.  The sixth volume of the series, Morning Glories, joins Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber music works by Amy Beach.  Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.”  American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out.  We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.”

Prior to recording the complete piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker.  This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on Performance Today on New York Public Radio.  Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont.  Her CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award.  Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianoforte, was released on the Newport Classic label.  Ms. Polk’s solo piano CD, titled Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, was released on the Bridge Records label.

In 2014, Ms. Polk’s CD titled The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.  The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station WQXR and debuted at #1 on the Classical Billboard Chart.  In 2017, Joanne Polk’s CD, Gershwin & Wild, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label and features Earl Wild’s transcriptions of Gershwin songs, as well as Wild’s Piano Sonata.  American Record Guide called Ms. Polk’s playing on this CD, “plush and dreamily attractive…”

In 2014, Joanne Polk was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.”  Ms. Polk’s profile focused on her work promoting the music of women composers.

Ms. Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music.  She has given master classes at many summer festivals and universities across the country, and in 2018 completed a five-city, three-week concert and master class tour of Taiwan and China.  

In 2019, two of Ms. Polk’s CDs, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn and The Flatterer: Solo Piano Music by Cécile Chaminade, were included on New York City’s classical radio station WQXR’s Essential Piano Recordings.

In February 2020, Ms. Polk’s CD Louise Farrenc Etudes and Variations for Solo Piano, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.  In December 2020, Ms. Polk’s Farrenc CD was on The New York Times “Best Classical Music of 2020” list:  

'The music of Louise Farrenc, professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory for three decades after 1842, has been taped before, but never quite so well as in Joanne Polk’s sample of her solo piano music...' -- New York Times [Best Classical Music of 2020]

Ms. Polk’s 2023 recording titled The Silence Between the Notes: Louise Farrenc Solo Piano Music Volume 2, was released on September 1, 2023, on the Steinway & Sons Label.

In December 2023 and January 2024, Ms. Polk traveled to China on an 8-city concert and master class tour.  In July 2024, Ms. Polk performed recitals and masterclasses at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.  

In September 2024, Ms. Polk’s second volume of solo piano music by Cécile Chaminade, titled Nostalgia, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label.

American Record Guide January/February 2025 review of Nostalgia:

“Polk has championed female composers all through her admirable discography. She has brought a wealth of great and enjoyable music to our attention, most of which has lived in relative obscurity since it was written. It would all be for naught if not for the exceptional musical insight and flawless piano technique she brings to these works.
It is so good to hear world-class pianists like Polk choose a recital of Chaminade music and play it with all of the seriousness one would expect if the program were music by European male composers of the time.”
Polk’s third CD of solo piano music by Cécile Chaminade will be released later in 2026.  Upcoming performances include solo and chamber music concerts featuring the music Amy Beach (1867-1944), in celebration of the 250th anniversary of America and the first successful female American composer.

To find out more about Ms. Polk, please visit her website at

Seattle Modern Orchestra’s (SMO's) University of Washington residency celebrates the legacies of longtime former School of Music professors and West Coast luminaries Stuart Dempster (b. 1936) and William O. Smith (1926-2020) with '90/100, Celebrating Stuart Dempster, William O. Smith, and West Coast Experimentalism.' Curated by longtime SMO clarinetist Rachel Yoder, the evening integrates elements of improvisation, deep listening, and playfully creative movement while rebooting elements of the composer/performer duo’s historic antics. 

SMO is joined by all-star guests C. Neil Parsons (Boston) on bass trombone and movement and Yoder on clarinets. Expect movement throughout the space and embodied, theatrical music-making, as well as the sonic high of Smith’s wild and wonderful extended clarinet techniques.

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Program

Pauline Oliveros: The Well and the Gentle (1985)
William O. Smith: Encounter (1970)
Rachel Yoder: Double Void (WORLD PREMIERE)
Curtis K. Hughes: chewing gum tornado (2026)
William O. Smith: Explorations for clarinet and chamber orchestra (1998)
Stuart Dempster: S.M.O.R.E.S (2017)* SMO Commission 

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Program Note

“Ten years ago, in the fall of 2016, there was an '80 and 90' concert at Meany Hall in celebration of the 80th birthday of Stuart Dempster and the 90th birthday of William O. “Bill” Smith. It was a tradition that apparently began with a 40/50 concert in 1976, and though Bill passed away in 2020, it brings me great joy that we can now celebrate Stuart’s 90th birthday, and what would have been Bill’s 100th!

Stuart and Bill are names well-known to the Seattle experimental music scene and beyond, as composers and performers of course, but also due to their three decades as co-leaders of the UW Contemporary Group (1968-1997). As I researched for this concert, looking through Contemporary Group papers and programs in the UW library, I was struck by the staggering number of performances they put on over the years, often involving dozens of faculty and students. Many of these people are still playing and creating music in Seattle (including in our own SMO!), and we must give thanks in part to Stuart and Bill for the thriving, multifaceted contemporary music community we enjoy today.

So what, in 2026, is the musical legacy of Stuart and Bill? For me, it’s very personal: Bill was my inspiration to begin to consider myself a “composer” at the age of 40. From the time we met in 2015 until he passed away in 2020, I had the amazing opportunity to get to know Bill – improvising with him, getting advice on playing his music, then working on a couple new solo pieces he wrote for me. He showed me (through his always kind and curious example) a different route to composition that I had never considered, ultimately helping me find my way to myself.

The musical spirit of Stuart Dempster and William O. Smith lives on, here on campus, in the Seattle new music community, and well beyond.”
—Rachel Yoder, curator

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Celebrated Russian pianist Mikhail Voskresensky leads a master class with UW piano students.

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Artist Biography

The last celebrated pianist representing the old Russian school in the 20th century, Mikhail Voskresensky “proved an imposing, magnetic presence” as noted by Los Angeles Times. He has given hundreds of recitals on stages of Salzburg Mozarteum, St. Petersburg Grand Philharmonic Hall, Prague Rudolfinum, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall, Beijing Forbidden City Hall, Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall, Mexico City Palacio de Bellas Artes, Budapest Franz Liszt Academy, Rio de Janeiro Theatro Municipal, just to name a few.

Mr. Voskresensky has soloed with some finest orchestras like Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony and many others.

He enjoyed performing with more than 100 conductors including extraordinary Franz Konwitschny, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Kurt Mazur, Kirill Kondrashin, Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, John Pritchard, Arvīds Jansons and Yury Temirkanov.

The memorable moment of Mr. Voskresensky’s artistic life was a study with Dmitry Shostakovich on his Second Piano Concerto which received its European Premiere at the Prague Spring Festival in the presence of the composer. He also championed contemporary works dedicated to him by Edison Denisov and Yuri Butsko, and presented World Premieres of newly discovered Sonata E flat minor by Scriabin and Piano Concerto by Taneev. He distinguished himself with the feats like All Chopin in 9 recitals, All Beethoven’s Sonatas in 7 recitals, All 27 Mozart Concertos in 4 seasons and recordings, All Scriabin Sonatas in recordings. His other numerous discs were released by labels Melodia, Triton, Victor, Classical Records, Aquarius and Supraphon.

Mr. Voskresensky has graduated from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and since his early successes at competitions including top prizes at the First Schumann International Competition and First Van Cliburn International Competition, he has reached the artistic heights and earned accolades like the title of National Artist of Russia, Order of the Rising Sun by The Emperor of Japan and Nikolai Rubinstein Gold Medal. Following the steps of his teacher Lev Oborin, he rose to become one of the most influential professors in the history of his alma mater. His preeminent teaching is in demand in many world’s major conservatories and universities. This success can be measured by the fact that his students have won 120 top prizes at world’s major international competitions.

Born in Berdiansk, Ukraine, Mr. Voskresensky protested the unjust war waged by Russia in 2022 and left the country. Upon the arrival in the USA he has seen an overwhelming support and interest in the media and the music community. The Atlantic welcomed him with the article and CNN featured him in Amanpour show. His recent and future engagements include concerts and masterclasses at Aspen, PianoTexas and Northern Lights Festivals, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Bard College, Georgia University, Rowan University, John Perry Academy of Music, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

The UW’s top auditioned choirs present modern vocal works, music from around the globe, and great works from the sacred repertoire in shared quarterly concerts showcasing each group’s most recent work.

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Director Biographies

 

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

Students of John Popham present a chamber music showcase. 

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Director Biography

New York City-based pianist Lisa Moore has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New York Times has described her as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned…lustrous at the keyboard.”

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Note: Lisa Moore also leads a master class with UW piano students
Master Class: Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:30 pm, HUB Lyceum 

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Biography

New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. Named “la leggenda” by La Repubblica (Italy) her playing combines lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital, a concerto, or a fiendish chamber score. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. She has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New Yorker describes her as both “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano”. Her playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”.

Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia on some of the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Hamer Hall and Recital Center, Milan’s La Scala, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums, and more than thirty collaborative ensemble discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected as one of The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and as a Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous…clever…hits the gas with controlled force”  and has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.

For sixteen years (1992–2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has collaborated with leading artists, composers, ensembles and dance companies – The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Farifax Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash Academy Orchestra, Canberra Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, Clocked Out, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, David Robertson, Brett Dean, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Christopher Zimmerman, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Roger Benedict, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, and Angel Gil-Ordonez.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Piano Spheres, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan (Wales), Liquid Music, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Bari Piano Festival, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit  

New York City-based pianist Lisa Moore leads a master class with UW piano students. Moore has worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New York Times has described her as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned…lustrous at the keyboard.”

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Note: Lisa Moore performs a solo recital on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 7:30 pm, at the HUB Lyceum 

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Biography

New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. Named “la leggenda” by La Repubblica (Italy) her playing combines lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital, a concerto, or a fiendish chamber score. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. She has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New Yorker describes her as both “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano”. Her playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”.

Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia on some of the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Hamer Hall and Recital Center, Milan’s La Scala, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums, and more than thirty collaborative ensemble discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected as one of The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and as a Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous…clever…hits the gas with controlled force”  and has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.

For sixteen years (1992–2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has collaborated with leading artists, composers, ensembles and dance companies – The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Farifax Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash Academy Orchestra, Canberra Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, Clocked Out, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, David Robertson, Brett Dean, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Christopher Zimmerman, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Roger Benedict, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, and Angel Gil-Ordonez.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Piano Spheres, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan (Wales), Liquid Music, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Bari Piano Festival, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit  

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

The UW’s top auditioned choirs present modern vocal works, music from around the globe, and great works from the sacred repertoire in shared quarterly concerts showcasing each group’s most recent work.

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Director Biographies

 

Students of John Popham present a chamber music showcase. 

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Director Biography

Pianists Robin McCabe and Rachelle McCabe perform four movements of Gustav Holst’s symphonic cycle The Planets, arranged by Holst himself for two pianos, while astral eye and ear candy converge in a slideshow created by UW Astronomy professor emeritus Bruce Balick. Weather permitting, attendees may view planetary wonders in the night sky via a telescope provided by the Department of Astronomy. 

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Biographies

Rachelle McCabe

Rachelle McCabe, professor emerita of music at Oregon State University, enjoys an international career as a concert pianist and artist teacher. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as in China, Canada, Southeast Asia, and France. She has held teaching residencies in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and British Columbia. 

Rachelle McCabe is the artistic director of Corvallis-OSU Piano International with its prestigious Steinway Piano Series, workshops, and educational outreach programs. In lieu of live concerts during the pandemic lockdown, Rachelle directed an exciting virtual piano festival presenting more than 20 world-renowned pianists in exclusive performances. The festival is available at Corvallispiano.org.  Rachelle also directs the OSU Chamber Music Workshop and the OSU Piano Institute, both summer programs.

Believing in the power of collaborative arts to help bring about change, Rachelle has created innovative programs and videos with writer/philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore and various other poets, artists, and scientists to address the global crisis of climate change and extinction. McCabe and Moore have performed their compelling program, Variations on a Theme of Extinction, in many cities across the USA, Canada, and Scotland, and a film version which weaves Rachelle’s studio performance of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli with Kathleen’s spoken narrative in various Oregon locations is found on YouTube.

Rachelle McCabe is a highly respected teacher and since completing her 35-year professorship at Oregon State in 2021, she keeps an independent studio of highly motivated students. In demand as a guest artist teacher and adjudicator, her current schedule includes master classes and festivals as well as concerts in Hong Kong, Atlanta, Portland, Eugene, and Seattle.

Rachelle holds a doctorate (DMA) from The University of Michigan, a master's degree from The Juilliard School, and a bachelor’s degree from The University of Washington. Her teachers were Willard Schultz, Bela Siki, Ania Dorfmann, Gyorgy Sandor, and Theodore Lettvin. 

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

Students of John Popham present a chamber music showcase. 

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Director Biography

The UW’s top auditioned choirs present modern vocal works, music from around the globe, and great works from the sacred repertoire in shared quarterly concerts showcasing each group’s most recent work.

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Director Biographies

 

David Alexander Rahbee and the UW Symphony are joined by the Combined UW Chamber Singers and University Chorale in presenting “Promise of Peace & Ode to Joy,' performing works by Sonny Moussa and Ludwig van Beethoven.

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Program

“Promise of Peace and Ode to Joy'

Samy Moussa: Elysium

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125

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Biography