Pianists Adam Sherkin and Anthony de Mare will probably be performing collectively in Composers in Play XV, a part of the continued Piano Lunaire live performance collection. The present takes place on October 18 on the TD Music Corridor in a venue debut for each artists.
Composers In Play XV: “Ink from the Defend” presents a program of (virtually) all-Canadian new music that initially premiered in New York Metropolis in March 2025.
On this system are works by Canadian composers Vivian Fung, Ann Southam, Linda Catlin Smith, Rodney Sharman, Adam Sherkin and Jared Miller, and a newly-commissioned world premiere from Andrew Staniland. Additionally on this system are contributions from American composers Kevin Places, Steve Reich and Conrad Tao.
LV spoke to Adam Sherkin and Anthony de Mare in regards to the upcoming recital.
Pianists Adam Sherkin & Anthony de Mare
Adam Sherkin has been presenting his Piano Lunaire collection, which produces concert events on full moon dates, in each Toronto and New York Metropolis for a number of years. The native of Toronto, who’s a graduate of the Glenn Gould College of Music, has carried out on the 4 Seasons Centre, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Music Gallery, the Glenn Gould Studio, St Martin-in-the Fields, Covent Backyard and the Royal Albert Corridor, amongst different venues worldwide.
Anthony de Mare makes a return to Toronto after about seven years. A Professor of Piano at Manhattan College of Music, de Mare has served as new music curator for the Sheen Middle for Thought and Tradition in NYC, and is a visitor curator at Kaufman Music Middle. In Toronto, he has a historical past of performing with organizations like New Music Live shows, and the 21C Music Competition.
Pianists Adam Sherkin & Anthony de Mare: The Interview
“The final time I performed right here was the 21C Competition in 2018,” remembers de Mare. He carried out incessantly in Toronto at venues just like the Music Gallery within the Eighties and Nineties.
The New York native is a proponent and acclaimed interpreter of recent music, together with work by Canadian composers. “I’ve performed a number of Canadian music.”
Is there a distinctly Canadian fashion? Or is it extra broadly a part of a North American vein on the earth of up to date music?
“I believe it’s extra North American,” de Mare says.
As each pianists level out, there may be a lot backwards and forwards throughout the border by way of music and artists, that types and influences are a lot the identical. They point out Canadian-born Jared Miller, who’s Assistant Professor of Composition within the College of Music on the College of North Carolina College of the Arts.
“I might virtually argue that his music’s gotten extra American,” Sherkin says. The piece they’ll be taking part in, the second motion of Miller’s The Shiny Exuberant Silence, was impressed by strolling by means of a abandoned Occasions Sq. in the course of the pandemic lockdowns.
“The electrical energy was nonetheless current even when it was empty,” de Mare says.
“You will get lots from it on first pay attention,” Sherkin says. “He jogs my memory a little bit of Kevin Lau. He wrote me a really tremendous 7 or 8 minute piece.”
Different materials for the recital comes from musical connections. “Linda Catlin Smith and Rodney Sharman I’ve recognized for years,” Anthony says. He says he’s exchanged many emails with composer Vivian Fung.
“She’s one other nice instance of a Canadian who’s accomplished nice within the US,” Adam notes.
The New York Program Debut
The New York live performance on March 18, 2025, debuted this system (with a couple of modifications) simply across the time of the US federal elections, and speak in regards to the 51st state.
“The New York viewers was sympathetic to that,” Sherkin says.
“Loads of college students got here, and had been very taken with [the music],” de Mare notes.
Adam explains that the New York program was modified for Toronto to permit for extra duo items, and combined up the repertoire, slightly than separating the solo and duo works.
“Among the different suggestions we obtained was curiosity and delight,” Sherkin says. Lots of the skilled musicians in attendance had been within the music they weren’t accustomed to.
The live performance format was additionally successful.
“Individuals appear to take pleasure in us taking part in collectively,” Adam says.
Anthony explains that the 2 musicians met in 2024, each of them engaged on a venture involving Steve Reich’s piece Six Pianos. Whereas the 2 had heard of one another by repute, and their recordings, they’d by no means met in individual earlier than.
Piano Lunaire: Toronto to New York
The Piano Lunaire collection is exclusive at this time as a creative alternate that crosses borders.
“I want extra collection would try this,” Anthony remarks.
Piano Lunaire’s format permits for each NY and Toronto audiences to expertise music and artists they could not in any other case have contact with. Throughout the time it’s been in operation, it has commissioned works, and championed youthful and rising artists, together with composers.
“I began Piano Lunaire in 2018 as a result of I needed to downsize,” Sherkin says. “We’re notably advocating for younger artists.”
Each artist are additionally keen on stretching the boundaries of style. De Mare’s 2015 launch Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim From The Piano options riffs on Sondheim tracks from individuals like Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, and Fred Hersch.
“We commissioned 14 extra to carry [the track count] as much as 50,” Sherkin says. De Mare’s Liaisons II All Issues Shiny And Lovely Re-Imagining Sondheim From The Piano, launched in spring 2025, consists of the Kevin Places solo piece that Anthony will play within the recital. “That crosses genres as nicely.” The album incorporates music for opera, indie movie, and different up to date genres.
“It creates a pleasant stability with the Canadian items,” Anthony provides.
“There’s a pleasant textural selection,” Adam notes. Places is well-known within the US, however much less so north of the border. He was the composer behind The Hours, an opera that premiered at The Met, primarily based on Michael Cunningham’s novel and the 2002 movie of the identical identify.
Extra Canadian Content material
The music of Ann Southam was a pure alternative for a Canadian program.
“We’ve obtained to signify Ann Southam,” Sherkin says.
He’s famous an elevated curiosity in her music over the previous few years, noting the reception after a 2023 recital that included her work. “Everybody needed to get in on it,” Adam says. He additionally feedback on rising curiosity in her music in New York circles.
Andrew Staniland’s work is a world premiere. “I believe for me the Andrew Staniland is an fascinating piece,” Sherkin feedback. “It is a piece that was initially commissioned by New Music Live shows for 2 accordions.”
The piece is titled Pentagrams. Staniland rearranged three of the Pentagrams for 2 pianos.
“That’s what we’re giving a world premiere of on Saturday,” Adam says.
“They’re enjoyable,” Anthony provides.
Adam Sherkin’s personal piece can be on this system, the titular Ink from the Defend.
“This was a chunk that was in draft mode for a couple of years,” Sherkin says. It was impressed by Benjamin Britten’s transient go to to Canada in 1940 with accomplice Peter Pears as a pacifist on the lookout for an escape from European struggle zones. “That was the inspiration.” Britten’s letters speak in regards to the drive by means of the Laurentian mountains. “All he writes about is the mosquitoes,” Sherkin laughs.
After the Laurentians, the pair went on to Toronto and Bala in Muskoka area, and Halifax, earlier than hitting the USA.
Sherkin’s piece consists of three quick actions impressed by that journey.
“The Halifax [piece] may be very quick,” de Mare provides.
- Discover live performance particulars and tickets for the October 18 recital [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.