Commissions to Ashkan Behzadi, Michelle Lou, & Max Murray

Talea Ensemble is collaborating with composers Ashkan Behzadi, Michelle Lou, and Max Murray, and pianist Roger Admiral, to commission and premiere three new works for piano and ensemble. Each work takes a different approach to the traditional piano concerto, incorporating new instrumental techniques, electronics, and alternative relationships between soloist and ensemble.

Ashkan Behzadi’s composition develops a sustained heterophonic texture that gradually changes, blending the piano and ensemble. Building on ideas from his recent work Forsythia (2024–25), the piece uses subtle rhythmic variations to shape its progression and challenges the conventional separation between soloist and ensemble.

Michelle Lou’s Dead Eyes combines acoustic piano, live electronics, extended techniques, field recordings, and multichannel spatialization. Electronic processing modifies instrumental sounds in real time, incorporating recordings of built and natural environments in California. The work explores how electronic processing and spatial distribution affect the perception of sound.

Max Murray’s foris, for piano, ensemble, and electronics, examines the keyboard’s geometric structure in relation to the traditional concerto form. The Latin title means “gate” or “door” and also evokes a forest. The composition contrasts the piano’s ordered structure with the surrounding sounds of the ensemble and electronics.

The three commissions are supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
taleaensemble.org

Date

March 26, 2027
Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, New York