May 18, 2011
Avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan at UW for 2-day residency, public concert
The UW School of Music welcomes world-renowned avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan to the campus for a two-day residency that will include a free afternoon workshop, the screening of a 2004 documentary about her and an evening recital on May 26.
Margaret Leng TanYvonne Tan
Tan will give a free workshop on avant-garde piano at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, in Brechemin Auditorium. Advance notes state she will “offer her insights into the magical sound world of the ‘three Cs, (John) Cage, (Henry) Cowell and (George) Crumb, the three pioneering composers of extended piano techniques. She also will demonstrate Cages invention, the prepared piano.
That same afternoon at 4:30, there will be a free screening of Evans Chans 2004 film about the pianist, Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, also in Brechemin Auditorium. The 90-minute film was said by The Washington Post to be “not only an exciting work of art in itself, but one of the very few films that manage to communicate some real and substantial information about the art of music.” Watch a trailer for the film online.
Tan will give a public guest artist recital titled The Three Cs: Pioneers of the Avant-Garde Piano at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 26, in the Meany Studio Theater. Tan will perform Cowells tone cluster and string piano pieces, prepared piano music of Cage and Crumbs Makrokosmos Volume 2: Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac for amplified piano.
Tickets for the concert are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors. For more information, call 206-543-5880 or visit the School of Music online.
Born in Singapore, Tan was the first woman to earn a doctorate from Juilliard, but youthful restlessness and a desire to explore the crosscurrents between Asian music and that of the West led her to Cage, and a collaboration that lasted from 1981 to his death.
Tan says of her work in the film about her, “As long as its not a gimmick, and you have put your heart and soul into it, then the world will listen.”
