WINTER CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES: SERGEI PROKOFIEV: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1

Posted on March 5, 2022

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) was born in Sontsovka, Ukraine. Born to an agricultural family in a small village, Prokofiev was exposed to local folk tunes and peasant songs from a young age which often infiltrated his musical works later on in life. His mother, a pianist, saw potential in the young boy and regularly sent... Read More ›

WINTER CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES: WILLIAM GRANT STILL:  THRENODY: IN MEMORY OF JEAN SIBELIUS

Posted on March 5, 2022

William Grant Still (1895 – 1978), born in Mississippi to schoolteachers and raised in the Black intellectual culture of Little Rock, Arkansas, had not only African American, but also Spanish, Native American, and Scots-Irish ancestry. He was also the first generation of his family not born into slavery.

Still initially planned to study... Read More ›

KATIE LIU: PYP’S 2021 CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNER

Posted on November 2, 2021

PYP is excited to announce that tickets are on sale NOW for Season 98 (2021-2022).

Don’t miss your chance to see PYP’s 2021 Concerto Competition winner, Katie Liu, perform Camille Saint-Saens’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Philharmonic Orchestra on May 8, 2022.

GABRIEL MENESES: Four Elephants (2020)

Posted on October 28, 2021

Knowing that his new piece Four Elephants would be performed by young people, Gabriel Meneses wanted to write something that was fun to play but also technical and musically challenging. He has always liked elephants and everything related to them. He hadn’t seen one in-person since his childhood until he visited the Oregon Zoo in 2013. He still remembers staring at... Read More ›

REINALDO MOYA: Nimbostratus (2021)

Posted on October 28, 2021

In meteorology, a nimbostratus cloud is a multi-level, grey, often dark, amorphous, nearly uniform cloud that usually produces continuous rain, snow, or sleet but no lightning or thunder.

This short piece is a musical representation of these clouds. The music seems ominous at times, lithe in others and there is always a slight precipitation going on. One hears the coming-together of... Read More ›

TEXU KIM: Jump!! (2021)

Posted on October 28, 2021

Texu’s piece Jump!!, which PYP will perform on November 13, 2021, portrays the sheer joy of playing outside (which we have not been able to enjoy fully for the past 14 months!). The beginning of the piece sounds like someone saying “one, two, three … and jump!”  The piece develops in unpredictable ways, providing some fun for the audience with pizzicati (plucking... Read More ›