Jason Robert Brown, Jake Heggie Among Composers Penning Compositions for Liaisons: Reimagining Sondheim

By Andrew Gans
January 30, 2013

On March 9 at 7 PM pianist Anthony de Mare will return to Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theatre for the second installment of Liaisons: Reimagining Sondheim from the Piano.

De Mare has commissioned 36 contemporary composers from the classical, jazz, theatre and film worlds to write short solo piano pieces inspired by Sondheim’s music; he will offer 15 of those compositions during the evening.

Attendees can expect to hear new compositions by Eve Beglarian, Jason Robert Brown, Mary Ellen Childs, Michael Daugherty, Peter Golub, Annie Gosfield, Phil Kline, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Thomas Newman, Eric Rockwell, Frederic Rzweski, Rodney Sharman, Bernadette Speach and Nils Vigeland. The works draw on famous and lesser-known Sondheim songs from Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, Company and other shows.

The repertoire for the evening follows:
Phil Kline: Paraphrase (Someone in a Tree) (based on "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures)
Frederic Rzewski: I’m Still Here (Follies)
Jason Robert Brown: Birds of Victorian England (based on "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" from Sweeney Todd)
Thomas Newman: Not While I’m Around (Sweeney Todd)
Rodney Sharman: Notes on Beautiful (based on "Beautiful" from Sunday in the Park with George)
Nico Muhly: Color and Light (Sunday in the Park with George)
Mary Ellen Childs: Now, Later, Soon (A Little Night Music)
Eve Beglarian: Perpetual Happiness (based on "Happiness" from Passion)
Bernadette Speach: In and Out of Love (based on "Send in the Clowns" and Liaisons from A Little Night Music)
John Musto: Epiphany (Sweeney Todd)
Michael Daugherty: Everybody’s Got the Right (Assassins)
Nils Vigeland: Merrily We Roll Along (Merrily We Roll Along)
Peter Golub: A Child of Children and Art (based on "Children and Art" from Sunday in the Park with George)
Steve Reich: Finishing the Hat (Sunday in the Park with George)
Eric Rockwell: You Could Drive a Person Crazy (Company)
Mason Bates: Very Put Together (based on "Putting it Together" from Sunday in the Park with George)
Annie Gosfield: A Bowler Hat (Pacific Overtures)
Jake Heggie: I’m Excited. No You’re Not (based on "A Weekend in the Country" from A Little Night Music)

The evening will also include an onstage discussion with Stephen Sondheim, led by Mark Eden Horowitz, author of "Sondheim on Music." Film clips of the composers speaking about Liaisons will be interspersed throughout the program.

Tickets are $55, $47 for members, $15 for those under 30. Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Tickets can be purchased through www.symphonyspace.org or by calling (212) 864-5400.