David Bohn - Toy Piano - First Set

A native of Wisconsin, David Bohn In his career as an organist, has given premieres of over fifty organ works. He currently resides in West Allis, Wisconsin, and is the organist and choir director at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Milwaukee. David Bohn is a strong advocate for both the Toy Piano and miniature forms in composition. Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame and his 100-Note Toy Piano Project exemplify his commitment and dedication to the instrument and the genre.

Concert Dates

  • March 19, 2022 - Virtual Concert Halls

15 one-minute selections for David Bohn and Toy Piano

  • toi toi toi

    Rainer Berger

    Rainer Berger studied at Musikhochschule Köln freelance composer and instrumentalist (flutes, EWI,sax) my ensembles/compositions playing own works „raan“ flutes/ewi (me) guitar/electronics (Andi Reisner) https://bit.ly/3in7eNu 3 pirouetten, (3 flutes) Dr. Eftihia Arkoudis (Greece/USA) and Daniela Mars (Brazil/France), some were recorded as part of a grant 20/21
    www.rainerberger.de

    The title "toi toi toi" is a german idiom for good luck (you pronounce it: toy). I have this scene in mind: someone is sitting in front of a toy piano dressed up and ready to leave for an important meeting (where you need good luck). There is one minute left and the person starts playing and develops this idea in a dialogic way. Just before the last chord there is a voice from the off: We have to leave NOW....playing the last chord, curtain...

  • Spike

    David Bohn

    David Bohn received degrees in composition from the University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Illinois. His primary composition teachers were Joel Naumann, Yehuda Yannay, and William Brooks. He has taught theory at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin - Parkside and the University of Illinois. He is President of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, Vice President of the Wisconsin Chapter of the Organ Historical Society, and edits the newsletters of both organizations.

  • Game Over

    Susan Brewster

    From USA Susan lives in London, England. She has composed and performed professionally for dance, theatre and film. She received a composition award for using “Sounds of Space” combining scientific and artistic ways of thinking.She was guest composer in London Gamelan Composers Forum, a concert of New Music for Gamelan.

    Game Over recalls a ban on pinball machines lasting more than 30 years until it was shown to be a game of skill and not chance. Sometimes music compositions seem created as if by chance, but I think skill always plays a part and ultimately calls the shots.

  • No Handel Bars

    Daniel Carpenter

    Daniel Carpenter is a composer from the UK, and is currently studying a PhD in Composition at University of Birmingham. Having originally come from a Popular Music background, Daniel incorporates a variety of influences into his music, aiming to draw from a multitude of artforms to benefit each one every time he creates a new composition. He specialises in electric guitar repertoire within contemporary classical music and orchestral compositions, and so Fifteen Minutes of Fame has been a new and intriguing challenge, which Daniel hopes to meet head-on with a mixture of tongue-in-cheek humour, attention to detail, and his unique perspective on both old and new music.

    "The title 'No Handel Bars' invokes both the name of a baroque composer and famous lyrics by Flobots while also immediately putting forward my mission statement: It is a piece of youthful introspection, free exploration, and pondering of material, with No Handel Bars to be found throughout the piece's duration. I want people to hear music as I hear it, and when writing this piece, there were several occasions where a melody or a collection of notes would allow me to hear another, more distant musical voice floating somewhere above the notes on the paper, and it's incidental moments like this that drive my music, I am genuinely excited to hear the piece, to share it with the world, and to see how it comes to life under the performer's hands."

  • Ersatzwaltz

    Melinda Faylor

    Melinda Faylor is a Filipina American pianist/composer with a background in classical piano performance and interdisciplinary work. Her current projects include “Piano Lounge”: a solo album for piano and electronics, and her new generative interdisciplinary piece MeMeMeMe (to be premiered in March 2022).

    There is a moment in childhood when life is a kaleidoscope of possibilities. Let it linger, let it last years, a lifetime, if you can. Each twist unveils the whirling patterns of a new day. Don’t look away this moment is yours. -poem by Jennifer Faylor

  • Question

    Oleh Harkavyy

    Oleh Harkavyy (b. 1968) - a member of National Union of Composers of Ukraine - composes in New Gothic style. See for details his article "Liturgical music as a dynamic system": https://journal.fi/jisocm/article/view/97442/57661 Active also as a musical semiotician. As a pianist, performs his piano works.

    The "Fall-Rise"speach intonation of an English question became an initial idea for the piece, entitled "Question", which has 3-phase structure: 3-voice canon of an original theme (down), then 3-voice canon of its inversion (up) and conclusive Intermedio with the original theme in counterpoint.

  • Plunk

    Amelia Kaplan

    Amelia Kaplan is a composer whose music creates meaning by juxtaposing and recontextualizing gestures crafted from the myriad musical and non-musical sounds accessible in our wired environment. Ms. Kaplan heads the Theory & Composition Area at Ball State University where she directs the New Music Ensemble.

    Plunk is my first work for toy piano, an instrument I have wanted to compose for, for quite some time. In it, a simple idea is restated from different registral and time perspectives and sometimes restated against itself in increasing cacaphony.

  • Almost

    Anicia Kohler

    Anicia Kohler is a composer and pianist from Switzerland. Her works for solo instruments, small ensembles, string orchestra and choir have been performed and/or recorded in many European countries and overseas.

    "Almost" is a short piece written for an instrument that Anicia Kohler first started to love during lockdown in spring 2020. The piece is calm and nervous at the same time – and it constantly switches between major and minor harmonies. It almost resolves itself in the end.

  • Carillon #1

    Michael Todd Kovell

    Michael Todd Kovell is a composer and arranger of concert, film, and popular music. He has degrees in composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and the PNWFS program. His works have been performed by the Northwest Sinfonia, St. Helens String Quartet, and members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

    A carillon is a an instrument that uses a keyboard to play pitched bells. Similarly, the toy piano uses a keyboard to strike metal bars. This piece uses overlapping patterns of two to six notes to create an ever changing tapestry of sound.

  • Ritini

    Ivan Moody

    Ivan Moody studied at the Universities of London, Joensuu and York. His compositions, which include much choral music, several concertos, chamber and solo works and opera, have been performed and recorded all over the world. He is also a conductor and a musicologist.

    "Ritini" is the Greek for "resin". The piece is a lament, intended to evoke the resinous pine trees on the Greek island of Evia, so much of which was destroyed in the wildfires during the summer of 2021.

  • Serial minute

    Pablo A. Rago

    Pablo A. Rago is a guitar player and composer from Mar del Plata, Argentina. His pieces have been selected in several call for scores around the world. He is currently pursuing a Phd in musical composition at Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    This piece has been written specially for Fifteen Minutes of Fame call for scores featuring David Bohn/toy piano.

    "At a glance a series. Could it be possible to see without looking?"

  • Starting Out

    Edward Ruchalski

    Ruchalski has composed for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Helen Boatwright, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Stephen Porter and the Society for New Music. His compositions have been performed at Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Mass MOCA, Miller Theatre, Yale University, the Festival of Miami, Harvard University, and Symphony Space.

    "Starting Out" (palindromic version) for toy piano was composed in December 2021 and is dedicated to David Bohn. This piece is a variation of the original Starting Out composed for Bohn’s “The 100-Note Toy Piano Project” in 2019.

  • fall 2021 toy piano

    Josh Schmidt

    Josh Schmidt is a composer/sound designer/musician living in Wisconsin. He is currently commission by the Metropolitan Opera of NY, and he teaches at UW-Milwaukee

  • Simple Canon

    Blair Whittington

    Blair Whittington is a Los Angeles native and composer. He concentrates on instrumental and vocal chamber music. His music has been performed across the United States and Europe.

    Imagining the sound of the toy piano one of the first things that came to mind was a canon at the octave. I imagined it performed with a somewhat gentle legato quality.

  • No Bohns About It

    Yehuda Yannay

    Yehuda Yannay is an American-Israeli composer, conductor, filmmaker, actor and a winner of international and national composition awards. He produced more than a 130 works that include music for orchestra, electronic, live electronic and synthesizer pieces, film, music-theater, and a long list of vocal and chamber music pieces.

    My hommage to David Bohn, is from a series of keyboard works dedicated to collaborators and assistants through many years, who stayed personal friends and supporters, and to whom I want to express my utmost gratitude. David was one of my most gifted students and helped me innumerable ways.