Two Follow-Up Albums in Tribute

For roughly the last fifteen years I have staked my reputation on being a pianist who specializes in 20th and 21st century music. The music I typically play can be challenging to audiences--though I take pride in being able to connect with listeners and make the music I play connect as well. This eventually resulted in being invited to record an album for a small Belgian label.

My first album was released in 2017 and it was a collection of dense, complex, modernist music and I was proud of it. And my parents were proud of it--despite the fact that, if it weren't me, they wouldn't listen to it.

I’ve always had complete support from my parents. They’ve attended every performance I’ve given that has been feasible for them to attend. The last public performance they were able to attend was in January of 2020.

In the fall of 2018 the label asked me for proposals for a follow-up album, to be recorded in early 2020. Initially, I wanted to record another album of dense, complex, modernist music but through the winter my resolve waivered.

I wanted to record an album that my parents could not only be proud of but also enjoy.

After a lengthy negotiation, and some compromise with the label, it was decided that I would record two albums--one I was satisfied with and one less than satisfied--in three days, in the spring of 2020.

Obviously, that didn't happen as the COVID-19 pandemic brought everyone's plans to a halt in March of 2020. Then, in April, the label shut down its operations. That gave me the opportunity to change the programming so that I would have two programs I could be satisfied with.

I hired a producer and he hired our audio engineer and booked our venue.

But, of course, we had to wait.

And then my mother died on July 7, 2021.

It wasn’t unexpected. She had been on dialysis, a medical intervention that only serves to prolong a patient’s life, for roughly the last six years. Over the last three years, the truth of that became real to me as I watched my mother’s health gradually decline and then, in the months leading up to her passing, rapidly decline.

She won't get to hear the music I wanted to record for her. In the last few months it’s been hard to want to sit down at the piano at all.

I've lived with these programs for nearly three years. I want to move on to new projects, but I also want to see these projects through.

Now they will be a tribute to my mother and music that my father can enjoy.

The dates for recording have been booked (January 4-6), all personnel have been hired.

The programs are:

Album 1

Klaviersonate Op.1 - Alban Berg

Last Pieces - Morton Feldman

B for Sonata - Betsy Jolas

Ein Hauch von Unzeit II* - Klaus Huber

Album 2

Fantasies and Impromptus - Donald Martino

Images I & II - Claude Debussy

Stand Still Here* - Jenny Beck

*World Premiere Recordings

$3000 more will ensure physical and digital production as well as international distribution.

Rewards for donors are:

$10 New Albums (digital)

$25 + Complete Studio Discography (digital)

$50 + New Albums (CD)

$75 + Bonus Tracks & Radio Extras (digital)

$100 + Complete Discography (CD, signed)

$150 + Signed Photo

$200 + Signed Production Music

$250 + Underwriting Credit for Album 1

$500 + Underwriting Credit for Album 2

$1000 + Hour in the Studio with the team