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COSMOPHONY CD RELEASE
Featuring Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa Piano
Sunday June 27, 2010 at 8:00 pm;
ADMISSION: $15/$10 available at the door
CD included in ticket price
Venue: The Western Front (303 East 8th Ave. Vancouver)
Twelve composers share their inner reflections on outer space in Cosmophony, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa’s debut solo piano CD inspired by the beauty and mystery of the cosmos. June 27th marks the release of Cosmophony on Redshift Records, and will be celebrated by a live performance of all twelve works at The Western Front including George Crumb’s monumental Makrokosmos Volume II.
The program opens with Denis Gougeon's fiercely virtuosic invocation of the sun, Piano-Soleil. From there, audiences are taken on a journey past each of the planets in our solar system from Mercury to Neptune, with pieces written especially for Iwaasa by composers Rodney Sharman, Marci Rabe, Alexander Pechenyuk, Jocelyn Morlock, Chris Kovarik, Jeffrey Ryan, Stefan Udell, and Jennifer Butler.
Jordan Nobles' Fragments, a cluster of brilliant miniatures depicting the Asteroid Belt, nestles between Mars and Jupiter. Pluto, now demoted to dwarf planet status, is replaced by Gliese 581 c, a distant planet discovered in 2007 and speculated to be able to support Earth-like life. Composer Emily Doolittle’s sparkling depiction expresses a tremulous dream of interstellar travel, alongside our fears of environmental collapse.
For the second half of the programme, George Crumb's monumental Makrokosmos II: 12 fantasy pieces after the Zodiac carries us past our galaxy and out into the stars. Written in 1973, this rarely performed twentieth century classic pioneered many revolutionary techniques for the piano. With the pianist often playing directly on the strings, the pieces coax an astonishing variety of unearthly sounds from the instrument.
About Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa
Hailed in the press as a "keyboard virtuoso" (Georgia Straight) and for her ability to take a piece “from notes on a page to a stunning work of art” (Victoria Times Colonist), pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa has performed as soloist and chamber musician in Canada, the United States and Germany. Known for bold and innovative concerts, Rachel combines her warmth and curiosity to touch the hearts and minds of audiences, whether she is playing Beethoven and Schumann or Ligeti and Saariaho. Meet Rachel online at www.iwaasa.com.
“Brilliant… Unforgettable … A fascinating adventure about unimaginable largeness and gravity, unknowable states, an invitation to wonder.” - The Vancouver Sun
More Info: www.cosmophony.com | redshiftsociety@gmail.com