Jerome Kitzke returns to Tribeca New Music's concert series with an evening of his Complete Works for Amplified Speaking Pianist (1994-2009) along with the world premiere of A Lament and Cry for These United States, for oboe/English horn/drum/vocals and piano/drum/vocals.

Four of his generation’s great new music pianists will be performing: Sarah Cahill, Anthony de Mare, Lisa Moore, and Kathleen Supové will be joined by oboist Keve Wilson and Mr. Kitzke himself on piano and toy piano. 

Sarah Cahill will perform There Is a Field (2008), an antiwar work commissioned by Ms. Cahill for her A Sweeter Music project, with texts by Walt Whitman and Rumi. 

Anthony de Mare will perform Sunflower Sutra (1999), an ode to the composer’s dying sister commissioned by Mr. de Mare and WNYC with texts by Allen Ginsberg and Mr. Kitzke.  Sunflower Sutra is now considered to be one of two seminal works in the genre, along with Frederic Rzewski’s De Profundis.

Lisa Moore will perform Bringing Roses With Her Words (2009), an elegy for the composer’s first love, Robin Bloom, commissioned by Ms. Moore who speaks and sings emotive nonsensical vocalizations within the framework of a score that takes some of its cue from the 1970 pop song Robin by Seals and Crofts.

Keve Wilson and Kathleen Supové will premiere A Lament and Cry for These United States (2018). Written in Italy and New York City, this work is Kitzke’s first artistic response to the election of our current president and is a comment and observation on and of all the craziness that has transpired since then and what it currently means to be an American. 

Jerome Kitzke will perform The Animist Child (1994) and The Green Automobile (2000). The Animist Child, for toy piano/vocals, was commissioned by Wendy Mae Chambers as part of the vanguard of new toy piano pieces being written for Ms. Chambers and Margaret Leng Tan in the early 1990’s. Mr. Kitzke’s piece celebrates the birth of Bix Karl Windbiel, the first-born son of dear friends. The Green Automobile (2000), with a text by Allen Ginsberg, is a paean to friendship as set forth in Ginsberg’s classic 1953 poem from his Reality Sandwiches collection.

Composer/performer Jerome Kitzke has been telling political and personal stories through uniquely original music, coupled with language, since 1970. Utilizing poetry, prose, and vocal sounds, both sensible and nonsensical, in works where instrumentalists are often required to speak or sing, his wildly emotive music can sting and jolt and then turn around and act as a tender and much needed balm. 

Come celebrate Jerome Kitzke’s wide-ranging contribution to the amplified speaking pianist genre and hear the premiere of his latest political work.