SEVEN DAYS is a contemplative cycle of 21 pieces for solo piano with titles corresponding to the days of the week Monday Morning, Monday Afternoon, Monday Evening, Tuesday Morning, Tuesday Afternoon, etc. The listener can simply listen as one would to any regular album, or listen at the times suggested by the movement titles creating an experience in line with old ideas of ritualized listening (like the liturgical tradition of singing the hours). Each piece explores a multilayered ambient sound world, imbued with the everyday expansiveness of time. The work is designed as a listening experience that tunes us into the passing of time, connecting us both to the present moment as well as the cycle of the week. The experience invites music to inhabit and structure our everyday to find us where we are in the world. The morning-afternoon-evening schedule is meant to focus participants on the dawn-to-dusk cycle as well as to create a communal listening ritual. It is also an experiment in large-scale form, designed to draw attention to musical material developing across a week-long expanse, interspersed with vast silences.
The piece was inspired by the work of Henry David Thoreau, Morton Feldman, Thomas Merton, and Chantal Akerman, whose work considers time, process, and stillness.
SEVEN DAYS is an artwork we are invited to “do” using music to point our attention to the present moment, the everyday, and the seemingly mundane. It is a piece listeners are also asked to live within as it unfolds over a week. The key players here are time and the listener’s own surroundings, starring together alongside music and art in a wordless drama.
Pianist and curator Pedja Mužijević has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with artists and ensembles. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica in Montevideo, Residentie Orkest in The Hague, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica and Shinsei Nihon Orchestra in Tokyo. Pedja has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall, 92Y and The Frick Collection in New York, Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, Dumbarton Oaks, Phillips Collection and National Gallery in Washington, DC, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, Casals Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut playing Mozart Concerto K. 503 with Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label.
Pedja’s interdisciplinary projects include touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project throughout the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise at Lincoln Center in New York, Barbican in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opera National de Paris, as well as Holland, Lucerne and Melbourne festivals. In 2018 Pedja conceived and premiered Framing Time, theatrical staging of Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories with lighting design by Burke Brown and choreography by Cesc Gelabert at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in New York, with subsequent performances in Germany and Spain. Combining his two passions, music and food, Pedja performed works by Ravel and Mussorgsky followed by a multi-course dinner prepared by chef David Bouley in his Test Kitchen in New York.
Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Pedja lives in New York City, where he is the artistic administrator and Baryshnikov Arts, an arts organization that supports artists in all disciplines through presentations and residencies. Pedja is also the artistic advisor at Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, a 12,500 acre working sheep and cattle ranch with large-scale outdoor sculptures and a summer concert season. Pedja directs workshops around the world, from Verbier Festival Academy and Banff Center to Colburn and Longy schools, in which he looks at the concert experience, both in programming and presentation, in an attempt to make concerts more accessible and relevant.
Gregory Spears is a New York-based composer who has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Volti, BMI/ Concert Artists Guild, Vocal Arts DC, New York Polyphony, The New York International Piano Competition, the JACK Quartet, and The New York Youth Symphony among others.
His latest opera “The Righteous", written in collaboration with former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera and premiered there in summer 2024. The opera was shortlisted for an International Opera Award in 2024 and was named a New York Times "Critic's Pick." Spears’ opera "Castor and Patience", also written in collaboration with Smith, was commissioned by Cincinnati Opera for their 100th Anniversary and premiered in 2022. "Castor and Patience” was also a New York Times "Critic's Pick” and noted in their year-end article Best Classical Music Performances of 2022. For the 2021-2022 season, the New York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered “Love Story,” an orchestral song cycle for countertenor and orchestra, setting another text by Smith.
Spears' opera, "Fellow Travelers", written in collaboration with Greg Pierce, premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 and was subsequently produced at the Prototype Festival (NYC), The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Minnesota Opera, Madison Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera, Columbus Opera, the Des Moines Metro Opera, the Seagle Festival, The Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Florida Grand Opera, Virginia Opera and Opera Parallèle. The premiere was featured in the New York Times’ The Best Classical Music of 2016, and Cincinnati Opera released a commercial CD recording in 2017.
Spears' first opera, "Paul's Case", written in collaboration with Kathryn Walat, was described as a "masterpiece" and a " gem " (New York Observer) with "ravishing music" (New York Times). It was developed by American Opera Projects and premiered by Urban Arias in 2013. The opera was restaged at the Prototype Festival in New York, and presented in a new production by Pittsburgh Opera in 2014. Spears' children's opera "Jason and the Argonauts", also written with Walat, premiered in 2016 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was subsequently performed for over 20,000 school children. His music is published by Schott Music and Schott PSNY.
“I conceived of SEVEN DAYS as a listening experience that tunes us into the passing of time, connecting us both to the present moment as well as the cycle of the week. Each of the album’s 21 pieces for solo piano explores a multilayered ambient sound world. The listener can simply listen to as one would to any regular album, or for a more ritualized experience, they can listen at the times suggested by the movement titles: Monday Morning, Monday Afternoon, Monday Evening, Tuesday Morning, Tuesday Afternoon, etc. In this way the album can become an artwork we are invited to “do,” or live within as its 21 movements unfold over a week.”
- Gregory Spears
