From the moment I discovered Frederic Rzewski, I have been an enthusiastic devotee of his music. The essential role of improvisation in his compositional process and the connection I felt to him as a trailblazing composer-pianist made me feel an instant connection to him. I began performing his music as a student playing the piano variations Mayn Yingele on my undergraduate degree recital. I then continued to perform piano works such as Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, Which Side Are You On?, War Songs, and Cadenza (con o senza Beethoven) on recitals over the last decade. I also championed his chamber music, performing Snacks as well as the minimalist masterpieces Coming Together and Attica. My fascination with Rzewski has been academic as well. In 2018, I completed my Doctor of Musical Arts oral exams with a lecture on Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Up until the 20th century, to be a composer and pianist used to be one and the same. The majority of the piano repertoire in the classical music canon is built upon the works of composer-pianists — Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Debussy, etc. As the fields in music became more and more specialized in the modern era, the divide between being a composer and a pianist were drifting further and further apart. I was always enamored with Rzewski as he was steadfastly embodying the composer-pianist tradition that seemed to be dying away. This very tradition is something that I view myself to be a part of as well. My artistic creation inextricably links performing and composing and I feel an inherent connection with Rzewski and his music for this reason. Rzewski wrote Songs of Insurrection in 2016, the beginning of a very trying time in US and world politics. My decision to perform and record this 75-minute masterpiece went beyond my penchant for championing Rzewski’s music, I also wanted to perform a piece that represented what it means to be alive at this moment in history. My final performance of this piece, as well as this recording, was done the week before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. While so much of our collective reality seems to have changed since then, the messaging of this piece — a piece about disparate voices coming together and fighting for democracy, a piece about humanity’s collective struggles, a piece that reflects on freedom — rings more truer now than ever.
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