Rosi Hertlein, Joe Kubera & Joe McPhee: The Art of Art Songs and Free Improvisation

Composing music is a quest in which the composer is trying to realize his/her vision. It’s a challenging process of writing and re-writing. The performer, who is bound by the instructions given to him by the composer, will interpret the written result.  

The interpreter’s challenge is to perform the piece on its highest possible level.  In improvised music, composer and interpreter become one person.  The compositional decisions are ad hoc and can’t be changed.  The quest is to react spontaneously to an inner idea or sound from another player, emotions coming from the surrounding space or any other influence and create sensible music from it. 

Both distinctly different approaches to music making will come together in this program, Art songs for soprano and piano by Andrew Imbrie, Ned Rorem, Otto Luening and Sergius Kagan will be answered by free improvisations. The musicians are: Rosi Hertlein, soprano and violin, Joe Kubera piano and Joe McPhee reeds.