Adam Tendler, piano
Special Event
Program
Works of John Cage, 1912-1992
The Perilous Night (1944)
The Seasons (1947)
Music for Piano (1952-53)
0'00" (1962)
Cheap Imitation (1969)
In five contrasting works by John Cage, pianist Adam Tendler explores the composer's evolving relationship with Eastern thought and elements of chance in his music from the mid 1940s to late 1960s, featuring The Perilous Night (1944), The Seasons (1947), Music for Piano (1952-53), 0'00" (1962), and Cheap Imitation (1969). In conversation with composer and San Francisco Conservatory faculty Nicholas Pavkovic, this performance is part of a seminar on Transnational Music and is open to discussion and reflection from the audience.
Performer Profile
A recognized interpreter of modern American music, Adam Tendler has performed the work of John Cage internationally, often from memory, working closely with the John Cage Trust. Tendler has recorded and spoken about Cage’s music for the immersive music app, Tido, produced by Edition Peters, Cage’s exclusive publisher, making him the first performer to record Cage’s music exclusively for a digital music platform.
Tendler has been called “a virtuoso” by The Village Voice, "exuberantly expressive" by the Los Angeles Times and a “quietly charismatic... intrepid... outstanding... maverick pianist” by The New Yorker. He has performed solo recitals in all fifty states, including engagements at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, (le) poisson rouge, National Sawdust, The Broad Museum, Issue Project Room, 92 Street Y, Rubin Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rothko Chapel, Joe’s Pub, The Fisher Center at Bard College and James Turrell's Skypace in Sarasota, Florida. His memoir, 88x50, was a 2014 Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and a Lambda Literary Award Nominee. 2015 saw the release of Tendler's premiere recording of Edward T. Cone’s 21 Little Preludes for piano and he will record an album of works by Robert Palmer for New World Records in 2018. Adam Tendler lives in Brooklyn, serves on the faculty of Greenwich House Music School and Third Street Music School Settlement and performs in the radical new music collective, Tenth Intervention.