Adam Tendler
Inheritances, solo piano
“…a musically rewarding and tightly plotted 80-minute set…a display of contemporary compositional force…a true show” — The New York Times
After his father’s unexpected death, pianist Adam Tendler (“the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” — Minneapolis Star Tribune) received an inheritance—a wad of cash given to him in a parking lot. He used the funds to begin a commissioning project, inviting a broad spectrum of today’s most exciting and recognized composers—his friends—to create new piano works exploring the idea of inheritance itself. Woven into one intimate program, these pieces tell a universal story of lineage, loss, and place; becoming a meditation on confronting the past while facing the future in an unforgettable concert experience unlike any other.
Garnering national media attention since its premiere and recent album release on New Amsterdam Records, Inheritances (a New York Times Critic’s Pick) has become a powerful meditation for countless listeners on themes of place, identity, and the cycles of life, acting as a catalyst beyond the concert hall to confront the past while moving forward.
This concert will be filmed and aired in part on CBS Sunday Morning later this year. Throughout the course of the performance, cameras will be moving around to capture footage of Tendler performing and of the crowd. We invite you to be a part of this special experience.
Join us at 6:00 pm before the performance for a composer talk with Adam Tendler and select artists from the program, moderated by Washington Post Classical Music Critic Michael Andor Brodeur.
Dinner will be available on the PS21 patio in between the talk and the performance, provided by yubakery (from the chefs of Colonia Verde), from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. See the menu here.
Read more about Inheritances in the New York Times.
ABOUT INHERITANCES
Adam Tendler, piano
New music by: Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, Laurie Anderson, inti figgis-vizueta, Pamela Z, Ted Hearne, Angélica Negrón, Christopher Cerrone, Marcos Balter, Missy Mazzoli, Darian Donovan Thomas, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Scott Wollschleger, Mary Prescott, Timo Andres and John Glover
Adam Tendler has been called a “daring pianist” of “adventurousness and muscular skill” (The New York Times), “the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a “relentlessly adventurous” (Washington Post), “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times), an “intrepid… maverick pianist” (The New Yorker), a “new music evangelist” (Time Out NY), and “one of contemporary classical music’s most intentional and daring pianists” (Seven Days). A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty states as part of a grassroots tour, the subject of his acclaimed memoir, 88×50. He has since become one of classical music’s most recognized and celebrated artists, receiving Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, Sydney Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NJ Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, as well as on the main-stages of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, the Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House, BAM, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Milan Fashion Week, and other leading series and stages worldwide.
As a recording artist, Tendler is featured on Wild Up’s GRAMMY-nominated third volume of Julius Eastman’s music. He has also released albums of music by Franz Liszt, Robert Palmer, Julius Eastman, Edward T. Cone, and his own original work. His commissions range from major works by Christian Wolff to Devonté Hynes, and he recently commissioned and recorded Inheritances, a program of 16 new pieces using the entire inheritance left to him by his father after his unexpected death, including works by Laurie Anderson, Nico Muhly, and Missy Mazzoli. Soon to be featured on CBS Sunday Morning, and a New York Times Critic Pick, the project was described by the Times as “a display of contemporary compositional force… a true show…emotionally involving…with a sense of true dramatic stakes,” and of the album, “You will be moved, profoundly and intensely.”
Tendler’s 2024 immersive installation, Exit Strategy, as Green-wood Cemetery’s artist in residence, received national attention and engaged hundreds of contributing community members. He is the author of two books, a Yamaha Artist, and serves on the piano faculty of NYU.
