Pianist Richard Valitutto Steps in for His New York Solo Recital Debut

New York, NY, January 4, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Pianist Richard Valitutto will make his New York City solo recital debut at Spectrum NYC on Thursday, January 7. Valitutto was invited to fill a last minute opening, where he will reprise a slightly revised version of his Nocturnes and Lullabies recital performed last month in Los Angeles.

About Richard Valitutto

Praised by the Los Angeles Times as a “vivid soloist,” “quietly dazzling,” and “vigorously virtuosic,” Grammy® nominated Richard Valitutto is a pianist and keyboardist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist, and composing/improvising creative who is sought after for his tenacity in bringing dynamic life to scores old and new in a spirit of integrated collaboration and informed understanding. He has been featured as a concerto soloist and ensemble member on critically acclaimed recordings for the New World, Populist, pfMENTUM, and Bôłt Records labels. Valitutto is a member of the critically acclaimed wild Up Modern Music Collective as well as a founding member of the new music quartet gnarwhallaby, whose Carnegie Hall debut was hailed as “startlingly versatile” by the New York Times. For more information: www.richardvalitutto.net

About Nocturnes and Lullabies

"Richard Valitutto brought his many talents to bear on the wide variety of contemporary pieces in Nocturnes and Lullabies, consistently delivering just the right blend of passion and artful technique." New Classic LA | 11 December 2015

Nocturnes and Lullabies is a contemporary response to these two seemingly archetypal genres of piano solos. It is concerned first and foremost with the concept of Night: a time when we sleep, dream, make love, have fights, go wild, stay awake thinking, stay awake not thinking, break rules, share feelings, waste time, get intoxicated, and do many things we might do during the day, but generally don’t. Somehow the night – its darkness, its quietude, its anticipation, its space – sets itself apart from our daily lives and routines and becomes a canvas for uninhibited opportunity.

Featuring New York premieres by West Coast composers Nicholas Deyoe and Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Nocturnes and Lullabies is at turns meditative and terrifying, soothing and distressing. From the post-modern musings of New York favorite Timo Andres to the austere, beguiling nocturnes by Canadian colleagues Marc Sabat and Linda Catlin Smith, Richard Valitutto challenges the listener's predilections and assumptions about what "night-music" and "cradle-music" actually are through the course of a sweeping epic of pianism. (Summary by Mr. Valitutto)

Program

Nicholas Deyoe | NCTRN [2014] *

Marc Sabat | Nocturne [1996] *

Helmut Lachenmann | Wiegenmusik [1963]

Bunita Marcus | Lullaby [2000]

Wolfgang von Schweinitz | Plainsound Lullaby [2014] *

Timo Andres | Heavy Sleep [2013]

Linda Catlin Smith | A Nocturne [1995]

Nicholas Deyoe | Lullaby 2 [2012] *

* NY premiere