Where Are We Going? and What Are We doing?/Quartet for the End of Time

As the Rubin Museum rounds out our Year of the Future, new music collective Tenth Intervention with pianist Adam Tendler present iconic compositions dedicated to the fluidity of time. Tendler returns to the Rubin in this Winter Solstice concert following two sold-out appearances at the Museum.

The concert begins with John Cage’s solo for prepared piano, The Unavailable Memory Of…, followed by Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958), which relies on chance and divination in its conception and performance. Cage, who often incorporated Eastern thought into his work, consulted the I Ching to set the musical parameters for the piece, and he gave the musicians detailed instructions in how to interpret their graphic scores. “I regard this work as one ‘in progress’ which I intend never to consider as in a final state, although I find each performance definitive,” Cage said about the Piano Concerto, which will be performed simultaneously with his tape lecture, Where Are We Going? and What Are We Doing? (1961).

After, Tenth Intervention takes on Olivier Messiaen’s iconic Quartet for the End of Time (1941), composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war and originally premiered and performed by Messiaen and other inmates within the prison walls.

Mark Dover (clarinet)

Alexandra Jones (cello)

Hajnal Pivnick (violin)

Adam Tendler (piano)

Dorian Wallace (conductor)

About the Performers

A “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times), Adam Tendler is a recognized figure in new music and leading interpreter of American composers. Between 2005 and 2006, Tendler appeared in all fifty United States in a grassroots recital tour he called America 88x50, which became the subject of his memoir, 88x50, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. Tendler has recorded performances and masterclasses for the digital music platform Tido, and his forthcoming album of piano works by Robert Palmer will appear on New World Records in 2019. An active presence in all contemporary music genres, Tendler has also performed the complete major piano works of Aaron Copland, and collaborates with the John Cage Trust and Edition Peters in presenting Cage’s work internationally. More at adamtendler.com

Tenth Intervention is equal parts presenting organization, music series, and artist collective in New York City. As “ambassadors of modern music” (Interlochen Public Radio), they present a bold and progressive concert series that explores the intersection of performance, experiential art, and its potential to reflect social issues. Founded in 2012 by violinist Hajnal Pivnick and composer/pianist Dorian Wallace, the group formed with the purpose of creating new work in a highly collaborative environment. Together with composers, musicians, visual artists, choreographers, dancers, and community organizations, Tenth Intervention has produced programs that expand the reach of music to be pioneering, diverse, and community focused. Tenth Intervention’s programming has been recognized with foundational support from New Music USA, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Lower Manhattan Community Council, Earle Brown Music Foundation, Johnstone Fund for New Music, and Puffin Foundation. As featured artists, Tenth Intervention has performed at National Sawdust, NPR’s Science Friday, New Music Gathering, Interlochen Public Radio’s In Studio A, Biome Arts/Swale, Bandits-Mages, Centre Pompidou, the Greene Space at WNYC & WQXR, Studio 360, Vox Hebraica and Videology for Silent House live score to silent film residency.

Image Credit for Hero Image

Excerpt from Solo for piano, from Concert for Piano and Orchestra by John Cage. Published by Henmar Press Inc. All rights reserved. Used by kind permission of C.F. Peters Corporation.