Here’s something to warm up a winter night: Noted Dutch pianist Marcel Worms will perform 17 “new blues” at Emerson Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center Monday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m.
Worms is known for his exploration of modern piano repertory influenced by such jazz composers as Poulenc and Ravel. Taking the idea a step further, he decided to commission new blues and blues-like pieces.
Since 1996, more than 170 composers from Europe, China, Indonesia, Russia, the Middle East, the United States, Africa and South America have contributed to the project. Reviewing a concert in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post wrote: “All this was virtuoso fare and Worms played it with joy, grace, and, at times, humor that was contagious and captivating."
The blues project has been released on four CDs. More commissions, publications and recordings are in the works.
Monday’s program in Emerson will feature a selection of these new blues, showing the different ways in which composers have approached the project.
Michiel Braam has written "a short Boogie-Woogie," Mikhail Kohzhayev "was inspired by the most famous Armenian landscape painter” and David Macbride incorporated exactly notated music with performer improvisation.
In other words, if you can't chase away the blues, embrace them.
Worms’ visit to Union, part of a North American tour, is free and open to the public.