Young musicians push the piano into new territory

Black and glossy and as unfathomable as deep space, the grand piano exerts an immense gravitational pull on the past and present of classical music. Three young pianists, all with local connections, aim to ensure that influence continues well into the future, although the routes they’ve chosen are sometimes far from conventional.

For Vicky Chow, who’ll soon present two salon concerts and an ensemble reading of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds for Music on Main, going off-piste was both surprising and simple. A decade ago, well on her way to an international reputation as an interpreter of the classics and nearing the end of her Juilliard School training, the Vancouver-born musician was simply helping out a friend when she discovered her true calling.

It probably helped that Chow’s friend was Zhou Tian, whose Concerto for Orchestra has been nominated for a 2018 Grammy Award for best contemporary classical composition.

Sonatra, as its title suggests, is a mashup of musical quotes from the Frank Sinatra songbook, played with the virtuoso skills necessary to tackle the classical sonata. A wild ride of endlessly overlapping arpeggios, it may well be the most maxed-out minimalist piece Chow has ever played. Or tried to play, as she points out.