Piano Spheres Presents Richard Valitutto: Thought and Desire

Richard Valitutto: THOUGHT AND DESIRE | Image courtesy of Piano Spheres

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, Piano Spheres, a nonprofit supporting compositions for new piano works, presents Thought and Desire by pianist Richard Valitutto (Music MFA 11) at Zipper Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Valitutto offers a program of 21st century piano solos, featuring works by composers George Walker (Sonata No. 5, 2003), Helmet Lachenmann (Wiegenmusik, 1963), Liza Lim (Winter, 2009), Rebecca Saunders (shadow, 2013), Linda Catlin Smith (Thought and Desire, 2007) and Francis Poulenc (Mélancolie, 1940). The evening also includes the U.S. premiere of Ramón Lazkano’s Petrikhor (2017).

“These works explore the liminality of existence, the truth of transitory being,” states the Piano Spheres website. “What is the threshold between darkness and light? Sound and music? …. Although we may consider the majority of our (ideal) existence to be prolonged moments of ‘stasis’ interrupted by jarring states of transition, our ontological condition is better understood as one of perpetual change peppered with ephemeral moments of ‘arrival.’”

Described as “a keyboard superstar” by The New Yorker and “vigorously virtuosic” by the Los Angeles Times, Valitutto is a piano soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, educator, composer-arranger and music writer. He continually lends his talents to critically acclaimed experimental music collective wild Up, and is a founding member of two chamber orchestras, gnarwhallaby and The Joshua Trio. Valitutto was featured on the album Harry Partch: Bitter Music (Bridge Records), for which he was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for Best Classical Compendium.