Show Your Heart – Lisa Moore piano and voice – with guests Jenny Khafagi violin and Lloyd Van’t Hoff clarinet
The New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore performs a program combining simple songs with virtuoso solo piano and chamber works. The concert highlights Moore’s “visionary” (The New Yorker) range, with music selected from her recorded albums, and her unique forty-year performing life. Opening with the dramatic Sonata From the Street by Leoš Janáček, Moore moves to songs by the recently departed American Frederic Rzewski (To His Coy Mistress), the young South Korean composer Soomin Kim (I’m doing well – a world premiere) and songwriter Randy Newman (I Think It’s Going To Rain Today). The first set concludes with Philip Glass’ turbulent classic Mad Rush. The second set welcomes virtuoso clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff on stage for his solo clarinet arrangement of Australian Nick Russoniello’s Dawn Searching, followed by the charismatic Melbourne-based violinist Jenny Khafagi pairing up with Moore to perform Bitter Suite – four transformed Yiddish folk songs by New York’s Martin Bresnick. The grand finale brings the three players together for the wild and dancing Soldier’s Tale Suite by Igor Stravinsky.
Lisa Moore
Jenny Khafagi
Performer Bios
Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. She has been living and working in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Collaborating with living composers, given her special passion and advocacy for the music of our time, Moore has performed hundreds of world premieres and recorded over 40 albums. She won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. The New Yorker describes her as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while The New York Times singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”. Pitchfork claims “she’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”. Moore has played throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia – on the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House, La Scala, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein.
Moore has released twelve albums for solo piano and more than thirty chamber music discs. This past June, Moore released her new solo album of music by the American composer-pianist Frederic Rzewski – no place to go but around – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked the album has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters. It is meticulous, clever, and hits the gas with controlled force”. Gramophone writes of her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. ABC 24 Hours wrote about Moore’s Leoš Janáček album: ”it is among my favourite recordings, indeed it combines the best of approaches – there is a greater rhythmic tension and the piano sound is rich and natural”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected by The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017.
For sixteen years (1992-2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. Together they toured throughout the world, winning Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year award. Her concerts with leading musicians and ensembles include Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, Don Byron, Brett Dean, London Sinfonietta, New York City Ballet, Albany Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Moore has performed under the batons of David Robertson, Leonard Bernstein, Bradley Lubman, Richard Mills, Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Jorge Mester, Benjamin Northey, Angel Gil-Ordonez, Steven Schick, and Edo de Waart.
Moore has worked with hundreds of composers on their music – including Elliot Carter, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Louis Andriessen, Frederic Rzewski, Ornette Coleman, Jonny Greenwood, Paul Dresher, David Lang, Don Byron, Martin Bresnick, Elena Kats-Chernin, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Paul Grabowski, Gerard Brophy, Michael Smetanin, Kate Neal, Thurston Moore, Kate Moore, Pamela Z, Missy Mazzoli, and Julia Wolfe.
Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Big Ears, Banff, Crash Dublin, Vienna, Graz, Trondheim, Oslo, Hamburg, Rome, Venice, Palermo, Turin, Aspen, Tanglewood, Gilmore, Chautauqua, LOUD Weekend MassMoca, PianoSpheres, Huddersfield, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Taormina, Leningrad, Moscow, Lithuania, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw. She is a member of the chamber ensembles Grand Band, Ensemble Signal, Mammoth Trio, and TwoSense.
Lisa Moore grew up in Canberra, London and Sydney. She began piano lessons at age 6, and later studied formally at the Sydney Conservatorium, University of Illinois (B.Mus), Eastman School of Music (M.Mus), SUNY Stonybrook (DMA), and in Paris with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. Moore enjoys artistic curation – designing programs and shaping festivals, as well as mentoring amateur and emerging professional musicians. She produced Australia’s Canberra International Music Festival 2008 Sounds Alive series. Moore teaches privately, and at Yale-Norfolk Festival New Music Workshop (where she also enjoys conducting). Since 1997 she has been a frequent guest at the Australian Academy of Music in Melbourne.
Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. For more Moore please visit www.lisamoore.org
Jenny Khafagi is a Melbourne-based violinist with a passion for chamber music. She was a member of the acclaimed contemporary group Syzygy Ensemble for nine years, and has also worked extensively with the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Inspire Quartet. In Melbourne, Jenny has performed with Inventi Ensemble, Melbourne Chamber Players, the Melbourne Ensemble, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Victoria Chamber Players. A frequent guest artist on music festivals she has played on Extended Play with Ensemble Offspring in Sydney, at MIT in Boston, and at the Banff Centre in Canada. Khafagi has appeared as Guest Concertmaster with Orchestra Victoria, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. She performs regularly with the MSO.
Lloyd Van’t Hoff is an Australian clarinetist, director, educator, recording artist and founding member of the award-winning Australian wind quintet, Arcadia Winds – Musica Viva’s inaugural FutureMakers. He has been lauded by Limelight Magazine for his “life-affirming music making,” and the Tasmanian Mercury for exhibiting “spectacular brilliance, charisma and sensitivity.” Born in Darwin, Van’t Hoff won the 2015 Symphony Australia ABC Young Performers Awards. Featured as a concerto soloist with Orchestra Victoria and the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, he has appeared as a recitalist at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre. Van’t Hoff is also a regular performer at chamber music festivals in Australia and around the world. He has conducted masterclasses and teaching residencies in the USA, Canada and throughout Australia. Van’t Hoff is the Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s Winterschool and Winterschool Outreach programs, and was an artist-in-residence at the Karlstad Universitet Muikhogskolan Ingesund in Sweden. Van’t Hoff has served as casual teaching faculty at Melbourne University, and the Yale School of Music. In 2021, he released his debut solo album, Johannes Brahms: Music for Clarinet and Piano. Van’t Hoff will make his Carnegie Hall debut in 2023. He is a Buffet Crampon and D’Addario endorsed performing artist.