Vicki Ray, piano, Guest Recital

Program

Nox (2024) by Taylor Brook 
     Crepesculum 
     Lullaby 
     Interlude I: Synapse 
     Paramnesia 
     Ballad 
     Interlude 2: Crystallization 
     Toccata (midnight) 
     Spiral 
     Interlude 3: Fungus 
     Numbers Eros (after Ligeti) 
     Interlude 4: Muscles 
     Bes 
     Hypnagogia (predawn)

About Nox:

Nox was written in 2024/2025 for Vicki Ray for the Piano Spheres Festival 2025 in LA, with the support of a Fromm Foundation commission.

Nox is a set of fourteen pieces, conceptualized together as the passage of time through a single night: falling asleep, dreaming, deep sleep, wakefulness, and gradually awakening in the predawn. The music explores this by drawing on my personal experience of unconscious and semi-conscious states where logic becomes fuzzy, and imagination goes to unusual and seemingly-impossible places. With the use of interactive electronic sound and audio-reactive projections, the lighting follows the passage through the night that Nox portrays. The projections are intended as a subtle addition to the music that helps to focus concentration and perception on the music.

Each of the movements has a unique focus and character, often exploring tuning, microtonal harmony, and experimenting with musical tropes. Most of these pieces are precisely notated, but the interludes are semi-notated guides for improvisation. For these interludes, the soloist is prompted to interact with the electronic sound, sometimes asked to only use a single note, and other times provided with more complex instructions to improvise in reaction to.
The electronic sounds are made exclusively with Pianoteq, which is a physical modelling synthesizer with a realistic piano sound. Some sections of the piece are set, where the live pianist and virtual pianos are synchronized with a click track, while other sections are interactive, with the software listening and responding to what the live pianist plays. The projections were created using TouchDesigner, based on the programming of Simon David Ryden.
 

Biography

Vicki Ray

Described as “phenomenal and fearless,” Vicki Ray is a pianist, improviser, and composer. She has commissioned and premiered countless new works by today’s leading composers. Ray is a founding member of Piano Spheres and has served as Head of Keyboard Studies at the California Institute of the Arts where she was named the first recipient of the Hal Blaine Chair in Musical Performance. She has appeared on numerous international festivals and was a regular member of the faculty at the Bang On a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA. Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series as a soloist and collaborative artist. Her widely varied performing and recording career covers the gamut of new and old music: from Boulez to Reich, Wadada Leo Smith to Beethoven. Notable recordings include the first Canadian disc of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble, the premiere recordings of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations), the Daniel Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the first recording of John Cage’s Europeras 3 and 4. Her recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on Microfest Records received a 2013 Grammy nomination. Her recording of Daniel Lentz’s River of 1000 Streams was named by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as one of the top 20 recordings of 2017. Vicki also serves as the chromolodeonist for the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Partch ensemble.