Piano Concerto no. 1

I. Grand, Optimistic

II. Aching, Yearning

III. Reckless, Abrasive, and Playful

Instrumentation: Piano and Orchestra

Duration: 17’00

Premiere: February 24, 2020 at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Performers: Kenneth Kiesler, Conductor. The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance University Symphony Orchestra. Karalyn Schubring, piano.

Program Note: My Piano Concerto No. 1 is an homage to the pianists and composers whose music accompanied my early teenage years and never left my side. I bought a CD of Martha Argerich playing Tchaikovsky’s First and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concertos when I was 14 and listened to it dozens of times. The free and joyous spirit of powerhouse jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara sparked my passion for creating and performing music, and the flavor of her compositional voice still peppers my own harmonic landscapes. The first piano concerto I learned to play was Shostakovich’s Second, and I was so delighted by the short, clean form and thematic simplicity of the piece that I became inspired to embark on writing a concerto for myself.

Another work close to my heart and mind while I was composing this piece was Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto. I took the liberty of copying the things that I liked from his work (stealing is, indeed, a time-honored tradition for composers): the epic opening with the piano soaring in octaves above the orchestra, the 16-minute duration, the three-movement, fast-slow-fast structure, and the unbelievably exciting conclusion in which he suddenly brings back the opening theme at the end of the third movement.

The first movement of my concerto begins confidently, with a tempo marking of “Grand and Optimistic,” and takes on characters that are lighthearted, tongue-and-cheek, and even a bit aggressive in an improvised cadenza. The second movement begins tenderly with a song crying out from the lower strings, counterbalanced by a delicate piano solo introducing a secondary theme that is equally tender, until the two eventually align in a climax of epic, Rachmaninoff-sized proportions. It ends peacefully with a lyrical cello solo accompanied by a simple, glassy piano accompaniment: a moment of stillness before the third movement rudely crashes onto the scene. The last movement propels itself forward by way of variation: what begins as a brash and reckless opening statement in the solo piano is eventually transformed into iterations that are playful, sparkly, rowdy, majestic, and joyous.