Visiting artist Matthew Bengtson will present a solo piano recital at Studio Z on Sunday, Nov. 4th featuring new works by Evan Chambers, Marcus Blunt, Jennifer Higdon, Ron Thomas, and Chiayu Hsu in addition to Debussy's Preludes Book II in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. We interviewed Bengtson to learn more about him and his concert program. 
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Your concert at Studio Z will feature new works for piano plus Debussy Preludes. Tell us a bit about the new works you're performing. Have you had a chance to work with any of the composers? 

​Let me begin by describing the program of new works. I know and have worked with all these composers.

I am opening with "torn" by Evan Chambers. Evan is on our composition faculty at Michigan. This piece was one of a group of compositions commissioned to commemorate the early passing of William Albright, a brilliant composer and a mentor and friend of Chambers, among others. Albright had a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like personality; he could be very sweet, caring and warm, but he could also be irrational, confrontational, and nasty. Especially in his later years, he descended into alcoholism, which may have caused, and certainly exacerbated this split personality. This extremely violent piece, with a heart-rending middle section, is quite vivid in depicting both this torn personality, and our attempts to deal with his life or his premature death. I promise that this piece will get everyone's attention!

The next pieces are a group of miniatures by English composer Marcus Blunt. Marcus and I met digitally (though not yet in person) through our mutual interest in Scriabin, and the many elements of Scriabin's harmonic language. It uses the piano's resonance in an attractive way. The fantasy on the name of Gabriel Fauré takes as a melodic line the musical letters of Fauré's name. It's one of several Blunt compositions governed by this principle. Both it and the Nocturnes have their moments of drama, but they will be heard in this program as a lyrical counterpart to the Chambers opening salvo. These are my first performances of Blunt's music.

Jennifer Higdon's Notes of Gratitude was commissioned for a concert "Notes of Thanks" on the occasion of Linda Reichert's retirement from many years of directing Philadelphia's distinguished "Network for New Music" ensemble. Reichert was among the first to commission Higdon (and numerous other commissions were to follow). This relationship could be seen as the beginning of Higdon's distinguished career. In "Notes of Gratitude" the piano is divided into two instruments, one sounding conventional, resonant triadic sounds, and second giving a percussive sound given by stopped notes in the middle register. The piece has an aura of festivity and also one of sadness, reflecting that this chapter has come to a close. I gave the premiere of the work last April and will not forget the lively time we spent working on the piece.

Ron Thomas is a distinguished Classical and jazz pianist, and Classical and jazz composer, teacher and improviser from the Philadelphia area. His Classical training led to training under Stockhausen, but Thomas found a new direction in his encounter with Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and the jazz tradition. These Five Pieces for Piano are attractive pieces written in the manner of late-Romantic piano miniatures as by Brahms or Liszt, with some crossing into a popular idiom. In a number of these pieces, Thomas delights in exploring the tensions between chromatic voices, leading us to ever unexpected tonal regions. The conclusions of these pieces arise from their harmonic and dramatic logic, but they typically come as surprises nonetheless.

Chiayu Hsu is a Taiwanese-American composer on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. I heard her Rhapsody-Toccata on an extraordinary recording at the International Conference of the College Music Society in Sydney, Australia. The performance was effective, but since the recording suffered from poor audio, I was interested to take up the piece, so I could give an audience a live experience of the work in the danger of live performance (and live performance IS dangerous in this piece!). The piece is an attempt to combine two pianistic virtuoso styles: the brilliant, fast-driving toccata style, and the Gershwinesque free, rhapsodic style. The piece is a great deal of fun and full of charm, even a little quixotic, but it is also extremely difficult. It will bring this part of the recital to an exciting close!

I learned the Debussy Preludes Book II as part of a semester's focus on Debussy at Michigan. I'll be playing this set at three other venues this fall. Debussy is likely the most important father of 20th and 21st century musical styles, always questioning traditions and exploring many fresh new ideas. He made possible many stylistic breakthroughs. This second book of Preludes represented a turn towards his later style, in which his more familiar "Impressionism" meets the Stravinsky style of Petrushka. There are various threads of connection one might find between Debussy and the other part of the recital. For example, there are the crosses between traditional art music and vernacular music, such as we find in Chambers, Thomas and Hsu in particular. In just this collection of Preludes, Debussy borrows from cakewalk in "General Lavine" and from the habanera in "La Puerta del Vino." He quotes excerpts from a Brahms Liebeslieder Waltz, from "The Rite of Spring," from a children's song "Au clair de la lune," from "God Save the Queen," and even the "Marseillaise." ​Debussy perfected the art of the inconclusive ending, reflecting the symbolist's credo of suggesting and evoking, rather than explicitly describing. You can hear the influence in Blunt and Thomas especially.


You are composer in addition to being a pianist. How does your work as a composer inform your compositions, and how does your experience as a performer inform your composing? 

I am no longer an active composer, but from my experience, I understand the struggle to notate on paper the kind of gesture one makes on the piano. Notation can't capture all the nuances of a musical performance. Composers usually want us performers to respect and examine, and then go beyond the notation to create something fresh. I especially enjoy the opportunity to work with composers, as I have on this program. I like the opportunity to engage with them about what they are trying to achieve in their music. That frees me to go beyond the notation and gives me full confidence to communicate their vision.


Anything else you would like to add about yourself or your concert? 
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About myself, I would just say that I'm an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, where I teach courses and seminars in Piano Literature, studio piano, and also historical performance on early keyboard instruments. I'm best known as an interpreter of Scriabin and Szymanowski, and my outside interests include golf, tennis, chess, and go.

​What is the Rimon Artist Salon series, and how long have you been doing it?

Amazingly this is the 12th year of the series. The Salons began as a way to explore how artists interpret or come to terms with the world that we all live in. What are their methods to grapple with an idea? How do they develop their art work? What inspires it? What technologies do they use? Different Salons generate different questions, of course. There have been forty-five Salons to date, investigating dance, photography, slam poetry, popular music, puppetry, glass arts, fiction, multimedia installation, film, architecture, theater, painting, video, non-fiction, and interdisciplinary work too. It turns out that the arts-loving public is hungry for these intimate conversations. I call it “lifting the veil.”
 
How is this different from an artist’s talk?

It’s meant to be a dialogue, not an information dump. One or two artists present some of their work, and a dialogue partner (aka moderator) starts to stir the conversational pot with them. The Salons are always built around an idea and are meant to be public conversations in which everyone in the room walks out having learned something, including the artists. The format is simple and dynamic, and the audience plays a big role in the conversation. I like to say that the best idea in the room is usually sitting in the audience.                                                 
 
Tell us about Lisa Gutkin and how you became familiar with her work. 

I first encountered Lisa Gutkin in her work as the violinist in the amazing band The Klezmatics. They’ve performed in the Twin Cities a lot over the years. Few bands have had the staying power and enduring creativity of this ensemble. Then I started hearing about a remarkable theater piece in New York called Indecent. Everyone seemed to be blown away by the show. Lisa had created the music for it. When the Guthrie did its wonderful production of Indecent last winter, Lisa played in the show along with two other great musicians: Pat O’Keefe and Spencer Chandler. The music provided some of the most memorable moments of the evening for me and was brilliantly integrated into the flow of the show. Later in the year I met Lisa at Spencer’s home and found out that she would be back in Minnesota in October. That brings us to the present moment.
 
What is the story behind "The Trail Forward"? 

This is a very personal project for Lisa and is very much in development—a work-in-progress. Its working title is “The Trail Forward,” and it’s about growing up with eighty-five Jewish, outdoor-loving, garment worker, leftist grandparents. It delves into the multilingual, politically radical village assembled by these immigrants who were mostly Eastern European Jews. The community’s evolution over time has become a metaphor for their assimilation into American life. Lisa is terrifically excited to get her musical ideas and some of the show’s characters in front of an audience to see what’s working or what could work better.
 
So what’s the idea in this Salon that you referred to?

Music has the power to reflect and ignite change in the culture. Artists have a role to play in shaping the world, and we all need to get busy.

Lisa Gutkin--composer, multi-instrumentalist, and violinist in The Klezmatics--offers a first hearing of her music-theater work-in-progress, "The Trail Forward," about growing up with 85 lefty, Jewish, outdoor-loving garment worker grandparents. Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg joins Lisa in conversation about making change through collective action and the power of music to ignite it. ​

Todd Harper (composer/piano/director) and Jun Miyake (metal & bamboo flutes) will come together for their second collaborative tour this fall, starting with a performance at Studio Z on Thursday, Oct. 18 featuring seven premieres by Harper contemplating the relationship with humans and their environment. We interviewed Harper to find out more about the project: 
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​How did your collaboration with Jun Miyake get started and how has it evolved?

​Jun and I met at our SGI Florida Nature & Culture Center in September 2016.  We started talking in the lunch line:  
"What do you do?” I asked.
"I play free jazz.“
"No kidding! No one admits to that anymore!"

We resolved to play together. We had our first tour in the fall of 2017, playing Studio Z, Phalen Poetry Park, a barn, and a club. This ended with recording a CD, Before Dawn. When I think of it, I am amazed at how we came together having never played before. Jun and I decided to do this again. Studio Z is the first stop of our 5-day, 6-event tour.  We will also play Phalen Poetry Park, the barn, Jazz Central, and end at the East Side Freedom Library. And, yes, we will record again!
 
Tell us about Musical Ecology.

This is a hard question! Part of Musical Ecology is an aesthetic/philosophic statement, which I am still developing. I am going to leave it to your curiosity to define it! This music is not "classical," not "jazz." Actually, it doesn’t really matter what I call it. For ASCAP, there are two categories: "serious" and "popular."  This music is not "popular!" So I guess this is serious music. Musical Ecology is the name of this ensemble.
 
Who is in the ensemble? 

For this ensemble I am bridging two different musical streams in my musical life: composing and improvising. The musicians I chose for this project have  a wide range of complimentary strengths. Jun Miyake is touring in Japan with pioneering drummer Pheeroan akLaff, in his "Dear Freedom" ensemble. They have collaborated for several years. Jun lives in New York City, and performs with a wide variety of musicians.

Musical Ecology is Todd Harper, composer/piano/director; Jun Miyake, metal & bamboo flutes, tenor saxophone; Aaron Kerr, acoustic/electric cello; Eric Coursen, drums/percussion. All of these musicians performed with Jun last year, but not as the same unit. Drummer Eric Coursen and I have a long history. We played together in “The Seekers of Beauty” from 1988 to 1993, and reconnected in 2015. You can find Eric playing for Haitian dance classes, and playing in Brazilian, Cuban, & West African ensembles. Cellist Aaron Kerr also has many hats as member of The Modern Spark Trio (classical) his band Dissonant Creatures (original rock.) We also collaborate with Eric in The Open Air Trio. Aaron plays cello and electric cello, which can take a bass or a soloist role. When I have a paying gig, Aaron and Eric are the first people I call. We have a book of original and interesting tunes to play for cafes, Farmer’s markets, and private functions. 
 
How do you and Jun Miyake collaborate long distance? 

It’s kind of an odd process, and we are defining it as we go along. For this ensemble, I tend to write more music than we could possibly play, and then edit it down in rehearsal to find the essential elements. What remains are vehicles for engaging inventions. My tendency has been to bring in more of my musical friends, to make things bigger, but at the moment, I am going deeper with a smaller unit.

Tell us about the theme and the various new pieces for "Ending the war on trees."

While there are many great musical works which are not programmatic, I tend to write about topics. Shiny voracious Beetles addressed the attackers of my plum and cherry trees. Snake River Trail is a tone poem about a walk in humid hot woods before a thunderstorm. Forgotten Forests is an evocative work regarding the forests which exist only in our memory. However, in these serious times, we need to lift our spirits. I am ending with the idea of resilience, “ Old tree, laughing in the blizzard”. At the end of the concert, we will have a short dialogue about the connection between ecology and music.