Internationally acclaimed pianist Lara Downes will be releasing her sixth solo CD, 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE GOLDBERG next week, with live performances of works from the disc scheduled for two venues in Chicago on September 16.  13 WAYS is a set of new “re-imaginings” of the magnificent Aria from the Goldberg Variations, by thirteen of today’s most remarkable composers, including Chicago’s Mischa Zupko, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon, Lukas Foss, David del Tredici, William Bolcom, Fred Hersch and Derek Bermel.

These brilliant contemporary voices invoke the Goldbergs in broadly different ways, celebrating both the eternal beauty of Bach's music and the musical evolutions of the past 250 years. In what she calls a “wonderfully imaginative musical journey”, Downes interprets these brilliant variations that range in mood from lyrical to tempestuous, traveling from neo-romanticism to jazz and back again to a Bachian contrapuntalism.
 
Known for her visionary, cutting-edge performances worldwide and praised for her "unique blend of musicianship and showmanship" (NPR) and sense of “nuance and drama" (Washington Post), Downes has already garnered acclaim for 13 WAYS. At its concert debut this summer at the Portland Piano International Festival, The Oregonian wrote “Lara Downes shines with electric playing of updated Goldberg Variations”.

With upcoming performances scheduled this Fall at Cornelia Street Café in NYC, Classical Revolution San Francisco, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in California, and the El Paso Pro Musica Festival in Texas, among other stops, Downes is bringing these “new Goldbergs” to audiences across the country, in her own exhilarating, exceptional and always unexpected way.
 
 

Concert #1

WHERE: WFMT Impromptu
Levin Performance Studio, WFMT
5400 North St. Louis Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60625

WHEN: Friday, September 16, 4pm

TICKETS: By Request

INFORMATION: 773-279-2000

Concert #2

WHERE: International Beethoven Project Festival
Chicago Urban Art Society
2229 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60608

WHEN: Friday, September 16, 12 midnight

TICKETS: $30 Adults All-Day Pass; $20 Student All-Day Pass
http://internationalbeethovenproject.com/events.php?id=13

INFORMATION: 312-772-5821
 

More Information: WWW.LARADOWNES.COM