Piano Spheres is celebrating its landmark 30th anniversary with 30 new compositions and 10 exciting concerts at the Colburn School and UCLA’s Nimoy Theater.
Throughout the season, the organization, founded in 1994 by pianist and scholar Leonard Stein, will present “30 for 30,” a set of 30 commissions to be performed by Piano Spheres’ core artists — Nic Gerpe, Aron Kallay, and Vicki Ray — along with emeritus artist Mark Robson, Stein resident artist Andrés Jaramillo, and emerging artist Thomas Mellan. All “30 for 30” composers were chosen by the performers and represent a sampling of notable local, national, and international talent.
Guest artist Stephen Drury kicks off the season with a solo recital on Oct. 22 in Colburn’s Thayer Hall, playing the complete piano sonatas of Charles Ives, honoring the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Another composer’s 150th birthday is celebrated in “Spielfreude” (The joy of playing), with Robson performing works by Arnold Schoenberg and others on Nov. 9 in Colburn’s Zipper Hall.
The tributes continue as a number of pianists, including Ray, Robson, and Gloria Cheng, remember one of Piano Spheres’ OG members, Susan Svrcek, and her husband, composer Frederick Lesemann, in a program entitled “For Susan and Rick” — Dec. 9 in Zipper Hall.
In the new year, on Jan. 21, 2025, Jaramillo performs a program dubbed “A Journey of Immigrants,” which draws on his specialty, interpreting the music of living Latino composers.
Ray’s concert on Feb. 18, 2025, presents large-scale works by Taylor Brook and Thomas Meadowcroft, both “30 for 30” composers. And on March 11, 2025, Gerpe presents “Islands,” with music by Donnacha Dennehy, Salina Fisher, and Christopher Cerrone and “30 for 30” pieces by Robert Pollock, José-Luis Hurtado, and Paul Moravec.
On March 26, 2025, Mellan performs “Collective Hysteria: The Three Piano Sonatas of Pierre Boulez” and also premieres works by organist-composer Rashaan Allwood, death metal legend Colin Marston, and Ukrainian violinist Orest Smovzh. And Mellan’s not the only one taking note of Boulez’s centennial: On May 30, 2025 at The Nimoy, Cheng, with guest pianist Ralph van Raat, pays homage to the composer’s music and legacy, also including pieces by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Frank Zappa, and others.
Before that, in “Love/Dream” on April 15, 2025, Kallay explores Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3, using the piece as a point of departure to bring in new works about what it means to love and dream.
Piano Spheres dedicates its 2024–2025 season to beloved colleague Sarah Gibson and plans to honor her memory with “For Sarah,” a special concert of her music on July 14, 2025, the first anniversary of her passing.
