American Double: violin and piano duo with Philip Ficsor
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Beginnings
American Double, violin and piano duo, came into existence when Philip Ficsor and I were students at Yale University, following our collaboration on Ezra Laderman’s Duo. One day Philip and I were driving to Boston as he popped in a tape into the car radio and I heard music that sounded at turns spiky and dissonant, at turns melodious; it would then would suddenly burst into ragtime and, immediately, into country fiddling only to return to a soulful tune reminiscent of Stephen Foster. The piece turned out to be Duo Fantasy by William Bolcom and soon thereafter Philip asked me if I would be interested in pursuing a project to perform and record Bolcom’s complete works for violin and piano. Without thinking too much, I said yes and now, after many days and nights in practice room and recording studio, trips to New York, Michigan and Chicago to coach with Bolcom and numerous emails and conversations with our graphic designer, “The Bolcom Project” will by released on Abany Records on September 1, 2007.
In the future...
Following the release of our CD Philip and I will have two tours in the US to promote the recording. In October of this year, we will perform for Augustana Arts series in Denver, at Whitworth College in Spokane as well as in Santa Barbara. In February and March of 2008 we will appear in concerts together with W. Bolcom who will present each composition prior to its performance. We are scheduled to give three concerts in Boston—Pickman Auditiorium at Longy, Harvard Musical Association and St. Botolph Club—as well as at Yale and Steinway Hall in NYC. Please visit Events for dates and times of these concerts and americandouble.com for more information on “The Bolcom Project” and the surrounding events.
For more detailed information about the American Double, including concert dates, program notes, and essays on classical music and the art (and business) of chamber music performance, visit americandouble.com
From AD's upcoming CD of William Bolcom's works for violin and piano
To play an individual sample, click on an appropriate text link. To save any sample mp3 to your computer, right click on a text link and choose “Save Target As” or “Save Link As.” You can also listen to all samples from this upcoming album in our handy cfinehouse.com music player (Flash) or your default mp3 player: broadband (m3u) | dial-up (m3u)
- "Graceful Ghost" Rag
- 2nd Violin Sonata
- 3rd Violin Sonata
- 4th Violin Sonata
- Duo Fantasy
The American Double at a recording session, August 2005.
