bitKlavier - Double Album Release and Live Concert
Premiere recordings of 20 new works for bitKlavier, plus a special concert at the Sō Percussion Summer Institute
Photo by Maria Grazia Facciolà
(pictured from left: me, Cristina Altamura, Dan Trueman)
Double Album Announcement
I am so excited for these albums, which have been in the works for about five years. Working with Dan Trueman on the bitKlavier has been an incredible journey of musical growth and experimentation. The instrument is flexible and focused, yet somehow also infinite in its creative potential. Most of all, it throws you into playing right away!
I never would have gotten past the first piece Dan wrote more than a decade ago without Cristina’s help. Every time I hit a wall with my piano technique — there were many such times — she knew instantly and effortlessly how to help. Her own playing on these tracks is dynamic, fluid, and prodigious.
Preludes for bitKlavier, by Dan Trueman
The bitKlavier Commissions, by various composers
Featuring Cristina Altamura and Adam Sliwinski on bitKlavier and piano
Out on Bandcamp Tuesday, July 23rd! - Preludes, Commissions
Special Release Concert:
Thursday, July 25th, 5pm
Co-presented by Sō Percussion Summer Institute & Legacy Arts International
Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University
Lee Hall - 136 Alexander Rd. Princeton, NJ 08540
Free Admission!
Listen to Pascal Le Boeuf’s “Synchronic” from the Commissions album, performed by yours truly:
This is a double-album release of new music for bitKlavier—by Dan Trueman, Jenny Beck, Chris Douthitt, Noah Fishman, Molly Herron, Pascal Le Boeuf, Nate May, Annika Socolofsky, and Bora Yoon—performed by Cristina Altamura and Adam Sliwinski.
Following the lauded release of Nostalgic Synchronic on New Amsterdam Records…
“The études, some fast and virtuosic, others spare and introspective, unfolded to beautiful and haunting effect in a haze of pitch-bending, echoes, distorted rhythms and eerie timbres.” —Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times
…these two albums represent a significant new step in the co-evolution of contemporary music and musical instrument design. They will be released together on July 23, 2024, and celebrated in concert at the So Percussion Summer Institute July 25th, co-presented by Legacy Arts International.
Purchase/Pre-order Links: Preludes, Commissions
Dan Trueman has been documenting each piece through his own Substack:
Substack Links: Preludes, Commissions
About bitKlavier
bitKlavier - brainchild of composer, fiddler, and instrument building Dan Trueman - is a new kind of digital musical software instrument. When connected to a MIDI keyboard, it feels like a piano under the hands and often sounds like one, but it is full of surprises. The interactive software transforms it into an instrument that sometimes acts like a metronome, other times like a recording played backwards. It also creates any conceivable tuning, which can change on the fly. bitKlavier aims to inspire a playful approach to instrument building, composition, and performance.
“Before writing these twelve preludes, Dan Trueman asked me to identify composers and pieces from the classical repertoire that inspired me. We talked about Chopin and Debussy, composers who each wrote their own books of preludes. Trueman’s preludes reach back into the history of the piano – which was a technological marvel in its day – to update its expressive possibilities for the 21st century.” - Cristina Altamura
“I have always believed that this instrument was extremely flexible, and that each composer would find their own unique voice with it. The bitKlavier is a kind of sandbox, with deceptively few tools that are infinitely variable. It was a joy for us to discover which bits of the program each composer would latch onto, and an honor to bring each new piece to life.” - Adam Sliwinski
THE ARTISTS
Photo By Maria Grazia Facciolà
Dan Trueman is a musician: a fiddler, a collaborator, a teacher, a developer of new instruments, a composer of music for ensembles of all shapes and sizes. He has worked with ensembles such as So Percussion, the PRISM Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Gallicantus, the JACK Quartet, as well as individuals like scientist Naomi Leonard, choreographer Rebecca Lazier, poet Paul Muldoon, director Mark DeChiazza, fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, guitarist/songwriter Monica Mugan, pianists Adam Sliwinski and Cristina Altamura, and many others. Dan’s work has been recognized by fellowships, grants, commissions, and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the Bessies, the Fulbright Commission, the American Composers Forum, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, Meet the Composer, among others. He is Professor and Chair, Department of Music at Princeton University. Read more:
Photo By Maria Grazia Facciolà
Pianist, educator, and impresaria Cristina Altamura has a multi-hued career shaped by a rich understanding of musical traditions with a distinctly modern flair for communication. She weaves together a crystalline technique, inspired musicality, innovative collaborations, creative programming, a love of community engagement, and a deep knowledge of pedagogy into a lush musical tapestry.
Altamura’s professional career began with a European debut in 1998 with the Bucharest Philharmonic. She was principal soloist of the State Philharmonic of Romania, Bacau from 1999-2003. Altamura appears regularly throughout New York City as soloist and with orchestras at important halls such as Carnegie (Stern and Weill Hall), Lincoln Center, and Steinway Hall, at summer festivals such as Central Park’s SummerStage, and on Broadway at the Victory Theatre. Her international performances have taken her from Canada and the USA to Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East. She has been featured on classical radio programs in New York and South America.
Continue reading:
Photo by Maria Grazia Facciolà
Adam Sliwinski has built a dynamic career of creative collaboration as percussionist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer. He specializes in bringing composers, performers, and other artists together to create exciting new work. A member of the ensemble Sō Percussion (proclaimed as "brilliant" and "consistently impressive" by the New York Times) since 2002, Adam has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Bonnaroo Festival, Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic, and everything in between. Sō Percussion has also toured extensively around the world, including multiple featured performances at the Barbican Centre in London, and tours to France, Germany, The Netherlands, West Africa, South America, Australia, and Russia.
Adam has been praised as a soloist by the New York Times for his “shapely, thoughtfully nuanced” playing. Though he trained primarily as a percussionist, Adam’s first major solo album, released in 2015 on New Amsterdam, was a collection of etudes called Nostalgic Synchronic for the bitKlavier, a digital piano software instrument invented by Dan Trueman.
Adam is Senior Lecturer and Edward T. Cone Performer-in-Residence at Princeton University. He is a co-founder of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, now in its sixteenth year.