On December 27th, we drove down to Vermont for a special concert and party in honor of Jon's 75th birthday. It was a great event, held in a large hall at the White River Junction Center for Cartoon Studies. Jon had had a good piano moved in for the concert, and the guests were treated to an evening of wonderful music played by the composer and friends from the many decades of his life. The musicians included former students and friends, many of whom have made their careers in music, and his son JJ, who is a professional musician in NYC. It was, as you can probably imagine, a wonderful and moving evening. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take any pictures -- I was swept up in the moment and totally forgot!
Minkyung Oh had come up from Boston to play some selections from the new CD, which we launched that night.
If you'd like to hear clips from the recording, there are two on the CD's page at the Phoenicia website: the concluding sonata from The Scarlatti Doubles, and "The Sheepfolds" from The Couperin Doubles. (The physical CDs are available now; mp3 downloads will be available soon.) If any of you have favorite classical radio programs or local reviewers who you think might be interested in this recording, please let me know. We were delighted with the comments from composer Steve Reich, who called the works "a beautiful addition to piano literature," and said he was particularly drawn to Jon's reworking of Couperin's Les Bergeries/"The Sheepfolds," which J.S. Bach also used in the Anna Magdalena Bach book.
(I'm happy to offer a 10% discount to any readers of this blog who'd like a copy - just email me at phoeniciapublishing (at) gmail (dot) com )
O this is stunning Beth! I want to send a copy to KUSC whose morning show I often listen to. (The traffic reports and the dry wit of their morning guy...Denis Bartel... available in the eastern time zone at 9 am) I'm sure they will want to play it & they have online ordering for everything they play. Vivian
Posted by: Vivian | January 14, 2014 at 02:08 PM
Thank you, Vivian! That would be great!
Posted by: Beth | January 14, 2014 at 02:12 PM
I listened to the clips and I love, love this music and Minkyung Oh's playing. I think I want to make this the first music I buy on MP3.
Posted by: Jean | January 16, 2014 at 04:47 AM