PROFILES + NOTES
PAUL KEREKES composer Composer and Pianist Paul Kerekes (b. 1988, Huntington, NY) is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, studying with David Lang. His music draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including free improvisation, early music, repeating patterns, and visual art. In July 2010 Paul worked alongside eighth blackbird as both a composer and performer at the festival Music10 in Blonay, Switzlerland. He has also attended notable programs such as the Stony Brook Summer Music Festival, the Young Artists Piano Program at Tanglewood, California Summer Music, and Yale’s New Music Workshop in Norfolk, Connecticut. He received his undergraduate degree in piano performance and composition from Queens College. There, Paul received numerous awards, such as the Gabriel Fontrier Award and the George Perle Award for achievement as an undergraduate composer. Paul has worked closely with David Fulmer and the Second Instrumental Unit, who have premiered many of his works. He has also had the privilege of hearing his music performed by TwoSense, the Stonewall Chorale, Mannes Preparatory Division Choir, Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, cellist Nicholas Photinos, flutist Kelli Kathman, and saxophonist/composer Ed Rosenberg in such venues as (le) poisson rouge, Symphony Space, Centre de Musique Hindemith, Lefrak Hall, and Central Park.
timber notes timber is a macabre and hallucinatory look into the forest. The piece begins with a mysterious and dark harmonic palette which represents dawn and awakening. The harmonies brighten, as more daylight is revealed, and lead into a new section marked by falling chords. The chords fall like trees, more intricately after the other leading into a slow build of string pizzicatos surging upward. The final section finally bursts open with a jazzy flare and quickly evaporates into a dreamlike state as the temple blocks remind us of the falling chords.