The Soundwaves new music series at the Santa Monica Public Library welcomes pianist Thomas Kotcheff Thursday February 27, at 7:30 p.m., to the Main Library Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins and USC, Kotcheff is a rising star as a soloist, a composer, and as half of the piano duo HOCKET, working with Eighth Blackbird, Bang on a Can, and performing at Disney Hall, the Carlsbad Music Festival, and many other prestigious venues.
This concert is an informal free preview and discussion of selections from “Songs of Insurrection,” a concert-length work based on protest songs from around the world, written in 2018 by Frederic Rzewski. This is the latest in Rzewski’s series of pieces based on political melodies and texts, including “Coming Together” (1971), “36 Variations on ‘The People United Will Never be Defeated’” (1975), “Four North American Ballads” (1979), “De Profundis” (1991), and other landmark compositions.
“Songs of Insurrection” will be played in full at Zipper Hall on March 3, as part of the Pianospheres concert series. Founded in 1994 by Leonard Stein, a student of Arnold Schoenberg’s, PianoSpheres presents a core group of four pianists plus guest artists in annual recitals. It is one of the pillars of the LA classical music scene. For more information, see pianospheres.org
Soundwaves is a concert series featuring composers and performers who appear on the DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) streaming service. The Santa Monica Public Library is the first public library to offer this service to its cardholders. Listings of past and upcoming Soundwaves shows as well as sound and video recordings are at SoundwavesNewMusic.com
Admission is free and all are welcome. Seating is limited and on a first-arrival basis. The Santa Monica Public Library is wheelchair accessible. For other disabled services, call Library Administration at (310) 458-8606 at least one week prior to event. For more information, visit smpl.org or contact the Santa Monica Public Library at (310) 458-8600.
Submitted by Jeff Schwartz, Reference Librarian
