Contents:
-To Celebrate the Need: Thank you for an unforgettable concert experience!
-Concert Reminder: Opera Alchemy Performs MAY SHE | SHE MAY: Friday, February 28, 7pm
-"Aspects of Landscape: Music inspired by the world of John Hitchens" has arrived ahead of its release in England on March 12
-More music... in May! Performance of Grounds and more in Southampton
To Celebrate the Need: Thank you for an unforgettable concert experience!
Dear Friends,
It's hard to crystallize into words what a remarkable experience To Celebrate the Need was. I can't wait to share photos once I receive them from our photographer, but there were around 90 people in attendance! I was practically bursting with joy (and nerves, considering how much of the program I participated in). Millions of thank-yous to the entire cast of the concert; to Arts Laureate, who did A/V recordings (also coming soon); to our generous host Grant Anderson of Studio 5N; to Douglas Johnson, my special guy, who supported in so many ways before the concert and did ink drawings throughout the concert; and to my family, who all converged for 'the big 30,' and have made so much of my music and art possible.
I can't wait to share more media from this experience with you, even as there is no slowing to the activities in the future!
Concert Reminder: Opera Alchemy Performs MAY SHE | SHE MAY: Friday, February 28, 7pm
When I conceived the To Celebrate the Need program, I thought of it as being an antiphonal statement to my summer concert May She Love: Songs & Opera Celebrating Sappho & Stein. It's only appropriate, then, that the week should be rounded out with another performance (this time with piano reduction) of my chamber opera MAY SHE | SHE MAY. This one-act drama about Gertrude Stein's first lesbian love-affair while she was a student at Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1900 will take place in the George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (17 E Mt. Vernon Pl, Baltimore, MD, 21202) at 7pm.
Peabody alums Hannah Wardell and Arianna Arnold will reprise their roles from their performance of the opera this past August and will be joined by Orianna Falla from New York City. In addition to the 25 minute opera, the Alchemy cast will perform selected opera scenes and numbers The opera illustrates one of the pivotal relationships in the life of the famous writer Gertrude Stein. At the age of 20 (1900), a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University, Stein finds herself unhappy in her work and in the misogynistic hostility from her teachers and colleagues. She also finds herself attracted to one of the women in her circle of friends, May Bookstaver. In discovering a side of herself that she had not before acknowledged, Gertrude Stein undergoes an experience which will change the course of the rest of her life. There is no better place than the gorgeous Peabody Library to hear a formative story about one of the 20th century's most innovative writers! RSVP for the concert on Facebook here!
Get excited for the concert by watching the video from the summer below
"Aspects of Landscape: Music inspired by the world of John Hitchens" has arrived ahead of its release in England on March 12
It's here! It's finally here! Aspects of Landscape: Music inspired by the World of John Hitchens, has finally arrived and what a beautiful package to receive in the mail! It won't be here for long, though, because most of the CDs are traveling to England for to be part of artist John Hitchens's 80th birthday retrospective at the City Art Gallery of Southampton in the second week of March! As part of the event I will be performing two of the pieces from the album: From Sombre Lands and Letters for John.
Aspects of Landscape will be officially released on Thursday, March 12, 2020 and will be distributed digitally through all major streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and Amazon. Physical copies will be available (in a limited) quantity directly from me, or from the CDBaby landing page for the album (stay tuned for more announcements).
A copy of the CD has already found its way to the WBJC, 91.5FM radio station, however, so if you are Baltimore-local and want to listen to any of the album's tracks ahead of the official release date (and even after):
then you can always request any of these tracks on the WBJC 91.5FM facebook page for their Friday request hour and you just might hear it over the radio waves!
JOHN HITCHENS: Aspects of Landscape will be running at the City Gallery of Southampton from March 13, 2020 to June 27, 2020, and I am so excited that there are further plans in the works to continue this intersection of musical and visual arts, and continue to offer chances for people to witness the music and art together beyond the retrospective's opening.
More music... in May! Performance of Grounds and more in Southampton
The music doesn't end with a few of my piano pieces. I am honored to announce that, in collaboration with The SÓN Project, we will be producing a performance of Grounds, for String Orchestra as part of the Aspects of Landscape exhibition. I will be returning to perform my Hitchens piano pieces again, and there are thrilling ideas brewing of a fuller concert program and education event that will continue to infuse the exhibition with music, and be a special event that can provide further avenues for engagement with John's work while it hangs in the Southampton City Art Gallery. The performance is slated for Wednesday, May 20, 2020. More details to follow as the program and events come into focus!
To say that I feel my 30s are off to a good start is the understatement of the decade (a whole new decade, too!). I have still been chipping away at new compositions throughout all of the chaos and I hope to share some of the progress on those new pieces soon! Thank you for coming to my concerts, for supporting my work, for listening. It means the world to me.
-Peter
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