Santa Fe New Music Presents The Bowed Piano Ensemble

Saturday, March 27, 2010, 7:00 p.m.

Santa Fe New Music is pleased to announce the return of Stephen Scott’s Bowed Piano Ensemble to New Mexico, in the Ensemble’s performance of the recent work Aurora Ficta and other works. The concert takes place on Saturday March 27 at 7:00 p.m. at Stieren Hall, on the campus of the Santa Fe Opera.

This will be Santa Fe New Music’s third presentation of The Bowed Piano Ensemble, an innovative musical group exploring the leading edge of extended performance techniques with one grand piano. The piano is bowed, or prepared in an elaborate fashion that includes wire, string and other implements. The musicians play “inside” the piano, using an array of plucking, strumming and other techniques that create an astonishing contrapuntal chamber-music tapestry.

To hear the long, singing lines, sustained drones, chugging accordion-like figures, crisp staccato tones, deep drum tones and others, often played simultaneously, evokes an otherworldly experience for the audience member. The Bowed Piano Ensemble will be joined by soprano Victoria Hansen in a program that includes the recent tone poem Aurora Ficta, a reprise of two Lorca songs from Paisajes Audibles/Sounding Landscapes which the BPE presented in Santa Fe in 2007, and the American Premiere of Lanka, a work inspired by North Indian raga and Balinese gamelan. Also on the concert is Vikings of the Sunrise, a fantasy on themes of navigation, exploration, and discovery in the Pacific from ancient times until the present era.

SFNM’s Artistic Director John Kennedy expresses pleasure in bringing the Bowed Piano Ensemble back to Santa Fe. “The Bowed Piano Ensemble is one of the most wonderful and aurally stimulating ensembles in music today,” he says, “and no matter what one’s musical inclinations are, The Bowed Piano Ensemble in a must-hear experience.”

Tickets for this concert are $25 at the door, or $20 in advance at Nicholas Potter Booksellers, or through Santa Fe New Music’s website: www.events.sfnm.org.

Stieren Hall, Santa Fe Opera, 7:00 p.m., Saturday, Mach 27, 2010; available at www.events.sfnm.org; or Nicholas Potter Booksellers, 211 East Palace Avenue. This event is part of SFNM's Season Subscription Series.

Through concerts, commissions, and educational events, Santa Fe New Music promotes understanding of, enthusiasm for, and participation in the music of our time, serving as an advocate for new classical music and its future. SFNM was founded by Artistic Director John Kennedy in 2000. Santa Fe New Music is a 501(c)3 corporation.