Ear To Mind To Stage: NYC Music Organization Premieres Contemporary Piano Music At Carnegie Hall

Jenny Q. Chai

Earlier this year we told you about the new Ear to Mind website created by 3rd Ward Web Design teacher David Karlins, and this Thursday, April 19 the NYC music organization will present the Carnegie Hall concert that inspired that new online destination.

The concert is a solo recital by acclaimed pianist and Jenny Q Chai, who will perform the world premiers of "Parallel Lines," a piece by composer and Ear to Mind co-director Inhyun Kim, and "Current," by Taiwanese composer Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang. The program also includes the US premier of "Innige Cavatina" by Italy's Marco Stroppa, as well as works by Debussy, Ligeti, Messiaen, Kurtág and Schumann. With the concert's diverse selection of works, Chai presents a broad musical survey. "I feel a sense of contentment programming creative concerts, mixing and matching old and new works, so as to highlight what is most special in each piece," she says. "After all, nothing comes from nothing, and new music is very much connected to that which came before."

For more information check out Page4Music's podcast interview with Chai, Kim and Ear to Mind board member Ruyi Lu.

The concert starts at 7:30pm this Thursday at Zankel Hall, which happens to be both Carnegie Hall's oldest and newest performance space. The hall, which New York magazine says "feels like a sacred underworld swathed in sea glass and forest green," hosted Carnegie Hall's very first concert, a 1891 piano recital, before splitting off to become a theater then cinema during the 20th century. It was revamped and reunited with the world-renowned music venue in 2003. Grab tickets for Ear to Mind's concert here.

-- John Ruscher