Piano Realities
A collaboration with Qubit

PREMIERE - MARCH 28, 2024 | 7:30PM
NATIONAL SAWDUST | 80 N 6th ST Brooklyn, NY

"Piano Realities" is a program of works for piano and electronics created and produced in collaboration with Qubit - designed to take advantage of multichannel environments, including higher-order ambisonics.

The program features work by a group of composers—all based throughout the US and Europe. I will perform excerpts from David Bird’s Iron Orchid, a piece they developed together closely over several years. Also featured is the US premiere of Joanna Bailie’s new work, Marblepark, which aims to create, in the composer’s words “an impossible [acoustic] space,” while Aaron Einbond’s Cosmologies places the listener at the center of a larger-than-life grand piano. The program also includes the world premiere of Heather Stebbins’ All Things That Disappear, and the first North American performance of Alec Hall’s A dog is a machine for loving, a powerfully emotional cycle for piano and tape based on the dogs in his life.

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Trilogy//piano Cycle for 2 pianos & live electronics//Brigitta Muntendorf

Ning yu & Cory Smythe, piano

Trilogy for two amplified grand pianos, live electronics and feed, consisting of the three pieces: Key of Presence, KreisIncrease and Key of Absence is a 45-minute piano program that attempts to approach paradoxes of presence, a sense and presence through music. - Brigitta Muntendorf

US premiere and other performances for August 2024 and beyond. More details TBA.

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ALL things that disappear//new work in collaboration with heather Stebbins

All things that disappear is an ongoing collaboration with sound artist Heather Stebbins. The first installment of the work will be premiered at the National Sawdust on March 28th, 2024.

Through continuing collaborative work sessions and improvisation sessions, all things that disappear will formulate into an evening length multimedia work including an immersive experience via online platform. Stay tuned for additional information…


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Echo Chamber

In collaboration with David Bird & Mark Reigelman II

Echo Chamber is an interactive sound sculpture that encompasses public art, musical composition, and piano performance. It is a collaboration between site-specific artist Mark Reigelman, music composer David Bird, and pianist Ning Yu. Echo Chamber is a musical and visual experience that invites the community to explore, listen, and speak, and challenges the ways in which we experience music and art in both public and private spaces.

Extending over 11 feet into the air, Echo Chamber consists of 56 stacked metal tubes creating an enormous facade of resonance and reflectivity. While some of the custom tubes will be hollow chambers, others will be tuned to a unique resonant frequency and contain a multichannel composition by David Bird. The composition utilizes two primary sound materials: prerecorded environmental sounds around GW’s campus and a piano performance by Ning Yu. The spacious harmonies of the composition work to intertwine, complement, and reinforce the acoustic properties of the sculpture.

Echo Chamber is the recipient of the New Music USA Winter 2019 grant.