LA Pianist performs MAKROKOSMOS50 on Maui

Kihei…On Friday, August 26th, 7:30PM at ProArts Playhouse, 1280 S. Kihei

Rd., Kihei, Maui, Ebb & Flow Arts (ebbandflowarts.org) will present pianist

Nic Gerpe (Los Angeles) in Pulitzer Prize-winning George Crumb's

Makrokosmos, Volume 1 (1972), a landmark of 20th-Century piano literature.

Gerpe calls his program Makrokosmos50 (www.makrokosmos50.com).

Admission is free. Seating is limited. It is advisable to arrive early.

There will be a pre-concert discussion at 6:30.

For further information contact ProArts Playhouse (proartsmaui.com),

808 463-6550, or ebbandflowarts2013@gmail.com/808 876-1854.

Pianist Nic Gerpe’s performances have been described as “magnetic”
and “prodigious... heroic”. L.A. Times music critic Mark Swed described
his playing as “wonderfully illuminating... his tone is crystalline. His
technique is dazzlingly fluid.”

Makrokosmos, Volume 1 is a masterwork that not only utilizes the full dynamic a

and expressive range of the piano played from the keyboard. Crumb masterfully

creates an entirely new coloristic and tonal palette by making use of extended,

inside-the-piano techniques. In addition, the pianist must chant, shout, sing,

whistle, and moan like a ghost.

There are twelve movements in this piece, which Crumb subtitles "Twelve

Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac". To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the

composition of Makrokosmos, Volume I, pianist/composer Nic Gerpe

commissioned twelve composers - Vera Ivanova, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Gernot

Wolfgang, Eric Guinivan, Alexander Elliott Miller, Viet Cuong, Julie Herndon,

Gilda Lyons, Timothy Peterson, Juhi Bansal, Thomas Osborne, and Gerpe

himself -  to each write a response to one movement of Crumb's original

masterwork. Gerpe will record and release both works as an album in 2022.