Tudor Piano

Bowerbird is pleased to present pianist Adam Tendler in a solo performance of works by Christian Wolff, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman, John Cage, and others.

Before David Tudor became renowned for his pioneering electronic compositions, he was celebrated as one of the most fearless and virtuosic interpreters of experimental piano music. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Tudor served as the primary champion of the New York School composers and works associated with the Fluxus movement, premiering scores that challenged every convention of notation, performance, and the relationship between composer and interpreter. His performances transformed indeterminate works and event scores into vivid sonic experiences, treating open-ended instructions not as puzzles to solve but as frameworks for spontaneous decision-making and physical engagement.

This concert honors Tudor’s legacy as a performer by presenting a diverse program of works he premiered during this formative period—pieces that blur the boundaries between composition and improvisation, notation and action, music and theater. Adam Tendler brings his own adventurous spirit and deep expertise in experimental repertoire to these historically significant works, continuing the tradition of radical interpretation that Tudor embodied.

PROGRAM

Christian Wolff — Suite I (1954)

Toshi Ichiyanagi — Music for Piano No. 4 (1960)

Morton Feldman — Three Pieces for Piano (1954)

Earle Brown — Forgotten Piece (c.1954)

Bo Nillson — Schlagfiguren (1978)

Henry Cowell — The Fairy Bells (1929)

John Cage — Solo from Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-8) with Indeterminacy (1959)

John Cage — 4’33” (1952)