After his father’s unexpected death, pianist Adam Tendler used his inheritance, a wad of cash received in a parking lot, to begin a commissioning project inviting a broad spectrum of sound artists and composers to create new piano works exploring the idea of ‘inheritance’ itself. Woven into one intimate program, these pieces tell a universal story of lineage, loss, and place, and become a meditation on confronting our past while moving forward into the future. The concert was held on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 7:30 pm at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District. The performance was followed by a panel discussion with Adam Tendler and Pamela Z, hosted by Joseph Bohigian.
New works by commissioned composers Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, Laurie Anderson, inti figgis-vizueta, Pamela Z, Ted Hearne, Angélica Negrón, Christopher Cerrone, Marcos Balter, Missy Mazzoli, Darian Donovan Thomas, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Scott Wollschleger, Mary Prescott, Timo Andres, and John Glover.
“Tendler’s personal and engaging concert is challenging and energizing but eschews a didactic approach. It’s a format worth emulating.” —San Francisco Classical Voice
Read interviews with Adam Tendler about the San Francisco performance of Inheritances in 48 Hills and the Bay Area Reporter.
Click the image to download the full concert program.
Photos
Credit: David Magnusson
About Adam Tendler
A recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and the 2022 Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, “currently the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times), and “relentlessly adventurous pianist” (Washington Post) “joyfully rocking out at his keyboard” (New York Times), Adam Tendler is an internationally recognized interpreter of living, modern and classical composers. A pioneer of DIY culture in concert music who has commissioned and premiered major works by Christian Wolff and Devonté Hynes alike, in his early twenties Tendler performed in all fifty United States as part of a grassroots recital tour he called America 88×50, which became the subject of his memoir, 88×50, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. He has gone on to become one of classical and contemporary music’s most recognized artists, recently appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, LA Philharmonic and on the mainstages of the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, and BAM. He has been presented by the NY Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and a host of other leading series and platforms including The Broad Museum, Guggenheim, Liquid Music, The Kitchen, le Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, KnockdownCenter, Issue Project Room, Maverick Concerts, Roulette, Death of Classical, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and NYC Pride. In 2023, Tendler performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Vienna’s Big Island Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and at the Sydney Opera House.
Tendler maintains a career as a concert soloist, recording artist, speaker, and educator. In 2022, he used the complete inheritance left to him by his father after his unexpected death to commission new works by a composer roster that includes Laurie Anderson, Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, Christopher Cerrone, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Timo Andres, and Pamela Z as part of a project called Inheritances, with LiquidMusic and WildUp. Recent recording projects include Robert Palmer: Piano Music on New World Records, Liszt’s Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses on the Steinway Label, and an appearance on Sō Percussion’s recording of Julius Eastman’s Stay On It. He has also recorded performances and masterclasses for Edition Peters, and is featured in a new printed edition of John Cage’s In a Landscape. Tendler has performed the complete major piano works of Aaron Copland, regularly performs and consults on the music of Julius Eastman, and is a champion and expert in the music of John Cage, collaborating frequently with the John Cage Trust and Edition Peters in presenting Cage’s work internationally. He recently released his second book, tidepools.
Adam Tendler is a Yamaha Artist, and serves on the piano faculty at New York University.
