ABOUT THE ARTIST Patrick Fink, pianist Patrick Fink pushes eighty-eight black and white buttons in a multitude of professional settings. He earned his degree in jazz piano from Temple University in 2011. In fall 2022 Patrick started a Master of Music in piano performance at West Chester University. Four and half years to complete the degree felt like the right amount of time considering private piano teaching, collaborative work, and well…life. A comprehensive biography is available at www.patrickfinkmusic.com.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Carl Cranmer, Vincent Craig, Igor Resnianski, the other professors at Wells, my advisors, and especially my piano classmates. Thanks to my former piano teachers for their expertise and labor getting me to Wells. Thanks to my piano students and off campus music colleagues. Special thanks to my wife, family, friends, and others for every bit of their support in this process. It's so much more than me choosing to sit at the instrument and press little black and white buttons. I'm forever grateful. Last but not least, thanks to you all for your time as the audience.
PROGRAM NOTES PIANO SONATA IN C (1775-1790) Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in Guadeloupe in 1745 and is considered the first composer of African descent to write classical music. The opening of his Sonata in C contains several similarities to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous Sonata semplice K545; however, Chevalier’s manuscript predates it by several years. (5min without the repeat)
MOVEMENT 11’ (2021) Jon Batiste was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1986. He is best known as the bandleader from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and for his work on the soundtrack to the 2020 Disney/Pixar movie Soul. His composition “MOVEMENT 11’” is part of an album called We Are that was released on March 19, 2021. That’s over 230 years after the Chevalier! This song was nominated for best contemporary classical composition for the 2022 Grammy awards. (2min)
IMAGES, BOOK 2 (1907) French composer Claude Debussy was born in 1862. This set of three character pieces was composed and published in 1907. The score includes three staves throughout and poses a certain challenge to read. Each movement is dedicated to a different friend of the composer and the programmatic titles appear at the beginning (instead of at the end like in his Preludes). (15min total)
RAIN TREE SKETCH II (1993) Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu was born in 1930 and wrote for soloists, different ensembles, and film from post World War Two Japan through the 1990’s. Rain Tree Sketch II was among the last pieces he wrote. He dedicated it to French composer Olivier Messiaen who died in April 1992. In A-B-A form, the A sections are marked “Celestially Light,” and the middle contains quite striking harmonies. (4min)
CHACONNE (1962) Sofia Gubaidulina was born in 1931 in Tartar in the former Soviet Union and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. The Chaconne (1962) is the first major composition of her career and was written for a classmate. It opens with an eight-measure theme and then seven loose variations follow. The theme and a short coda bring it to a close. There are certainly some harsh and crunchy moments! However, a variety of strong rhythmic ideas and exciting textures persist as the piece unfolds. (10min)
PIANO SONATA IN E MINOR (1932) American composer Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887 and was active primarily in Chicago until her death in 1953. Her Symphony No 1 in E minor took first prize at the 1932 Wanamaker competition while the Piano Sonata in E minor took third prize. Her piano sonata draws on melodies from spirituals strung together in a largescale, three movement Neo-Romantic work. The dramatic first movement and the spiritual-like second movement both follow sonata form. After an extended introduction, the third movement concludes with a rondo form. My favorite part is the lyrical cantabile section towards the beginning of the third movement. (about 23 min without the repeat)