The “fiercely gifted” (New York Times) pianist Sarah Cahill returns to Miami to perform yet another fantastic program. The event is set to celebrate the 80th birthday of Terry Riley, one of the most iconic American composers. Sarah explains: “His music is far more complex and adventurous than people give him credit for, and he has written so much terrific music since In C,” his most infamous opus. Newly commissioned works of four emerging composers (Sam Adams, Danny Clay, Christine Southworth and Dylan Mattingly) are featured together with pieces by Pauline Oliveros, Evan Ziporyn and Juraj Kojs.

Sarah talks about the concert: “What I love about this program is that each composer reflects on Terry Riley’s music but none of the pieces sound like him.  Using a tiny speaker hidden in the piano, Sam Adams creates resonances with sine waves in duet with the pianist.  Evan Ziporyn’s You Are Getting Sleepy gets some of its inspiration from Evan’s work with Balinese gamelan and Ghanaian drumming.  Christine Southworth’s Sparkita and Her Kittens deconstructs a Bollywood soundtrack.  25-year-old Danny Clay’s three-movement Circle Songs shimmers with Terry Riley’s sunny positive California energy, but the resemblances stop there. Pauline Oliveros’ A Trilling Piece for Terry is a structured improvisation, which I have been playing as a duet with whoever is turning pages for that particular concert.  Pauline has known Terry since the 60s when they co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center, so it’s particularly meaningful to have a piece by her.”

The concert features a world premiere: Kojs’ In the Mist, a piece also commissioned by Sarah Cahill. The work combines traditional playing and unconventional extended techniques, including the reformulation of pianist’s hands and feet as percussion instruments.