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Simple Gifts, variations for Conrad Prebys

premiere: Aleck Karis, UC San Diego, January 29, 2020

length: 5 minutes

date: 2019

instrumentation: solo piano

score

audio (forthcoming)

program note:  Conrad Prebys (1933-2016) was an extremely generous man who made the largest and most important gift to the UC San Diego Music Department that we have ever received, enabling us to build the Conrad Prebys Music Center and Concert Hall. In my conversations with him, he often spoke about how he "loved simple, beautiful music." I've sought to honor his love of beauty and simplicity in this piece, written for a concert dedicated to his memory. I created a set of mini-variations on the Shaker folk song Simple Gifts (composed in 1848 and generally attributed to Elder Joseph Brackett) which was famously set by Aaron Copland in 1944. My variations change frequently and unpredictably within the phrases of the song, exploring various aspects of pianism and chromatic transposition. My friend and colleague Aleck Karis gave the premiere performance in La Jolla, California on January 29, 2020 in the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.