Piano Spheres: for Sarah

VENUE CORRECTION! THAYER HALL, across from the cafeteria

Music by Boulez, Feldman, Gibson, Lindburg, Stravinsky and Zappa

“It’s not just that Ms. Cheng plays these daunting pieces with such commanding technique, color and imagination. She has brought together works that fascinatingly complement one another.” —New York Times

“I enjoy Van Raat on recording, but given the chance to hear him again live, I would run, not walk.” —Christian B. Carey, Musical America

Date: July 14, 2025 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Optional dinner at 6:30 TBD

Venue: Thayer Hall at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA, CA 90012

Tickets: $25
https://pianospheres.org/event/a-concert-for-sarah//

On July 14, 2024 the Piano Spheres family lost one of our own. Sarah Gibson was a brilliant pianist, a fierce composer, and an inspirational educator. She was half of the piano duo HOCKET who joined Piano Spheres as Core Artists in 2019, but she has been part of the Piano Spheres family for over a decade as both an Emerging Artist and Guest Artist. Sarah was a dedicated friend and colleague, an inspiring teacher, and a bright light in our tightly knit new music community. Please join the Piano Spheres family as we come together to celebrate Sarah with heartfelt performances of her music.

Driven by Artistry
Mission Statement — “Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano while, mentoring the next generation of emerging pianists. It enlarges the piano repertoire by commissioning new works and sustaining a concert series that focuses primarily on works by contemporary composers.”
Piano Spheres was founded in 1994 by pianist and scholar Leonard Stein, to present the best of contemporary piano music as well as rarely heard treasures from centuries past. Stein, a protégé of Arnold Schoenberg and founding Director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, was a champion of new music for more than sixty years as pianist, scholar, teacher, and presenter, both in Los Angeles and abroad. He hand-selected four of his most adventurous, new-music-minded former students from the University of Southern California – Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray, Mark Robson, and Susan Svrček – to mentor as his colleagues in a unique cooperative venture: a concert series presenting five solo piano recitals programmed by each of the five pianists, all of whom share a fierce dedication to new and unusual music. On September 13, 1994, marking the 120th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth, Piano Spheres presented its first concert. Since then, it has continued to combine the highest musical standards with a passionate commitment to exploring the music of today, to create the piano repertoire of the future.
The passing of Leonard Stein in 2004 led to a decision to invite a distinguished guest pianist each season to program and perform one concert of the five-concert series, which draws audiences from throughout the region. Among these guest pianists have been composer-pianist Thomas Adès, Jeffrey Kahane, Kathleen Supové, Christopher O’Riley, Ursula Oppens, composer-pianist Terry Riley, Eric Huebner, Joanne Pearce Martin, Liam Viney, the Bugallo-Williams Duo, the Viney-Grinberg Duo, Aron Kallay, Steven Vanhauwaert, Nic Gerpe, Richard Valitutto, and HOCKET.

Critics have called Piano Spheres “A nourishing, lasting LA invention” and one of “our most imaginative, best-planned, courageous and stimulating concert series.” Perhaps the LA Times said it best: “Clearly, Piano Spheres is intent on promoting new musical piano culture, not only by affording a handful of L.A.’s finest [pianists] a regular showcase, but also helping to expand and update the existing solo piano repertoire and offer needed encouragement to young composers.”

To date, Piano Spheres’ core artists and renowned guest artists have presented 830 works for piano by more than 300 composers from across the globe, of which 92 are women and 254 are American. These works include solo, duo piano, piano chamber music, and piano vocal music, comprising 126 premieres, 44 of which were commissioned by PS itself. Past performances are presented both on our website and the Piano Spheres YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@PianoSpheres