Stephen Porter

In 2012, Stephen Porter was named artist-resident of the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris, and invited to give recitals of the music of Claude Debussy during the composer’s 150th birthday year. His performances of the complete Piano Preludes of Debussy in Paris, in Sarajevo as featured soloist of the 8th Bosnia International Music Festival, and in the United States have been critically acclaimed as “masterful...everything is graceful and appropriate.” Mr. Porter was recently the guest on National Public Radio’s “Diane Rehm Show,” to discuss Debussy’s life and music. He has appeared as soloist at Albert Long Hall in Istanbul, the Rockefeller Foundation at Lake Como, the University of Rio de Janeiro, and LSO St. Luke’s with the Amadeus Orchestra of London.

Concert Dates

  • October 13, 2013 - Jan Hus Church, New York City

  • March 1, 2013 - Lehman Hall at Harvard University, Massachusetts

15 one-minute selections Re-Imagining Debussy for Stephen Porter

  • Granada Forever Echoes

    Anna Aidinian

    Anna Aidinian studied piano and composition at the Armenia and Moscow State Conservatories where she taught after obtaining her degrees. Ms. Aidinian's performances and deeply rooted in Armenian folk music compositions generated great interest and were highly praised for their expressiveness and intellectual sophistication.

    Despite being influenced by Spanish culture Debussy never visited Spain. What if he did and attended a flamenco performance? The piece is based on a motif G-F-E (title acrostic ): a distant memory enters the mind, then becomes alive in the syncopated middle part before fading away.

  • Après une Exécution

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza studied in England at the Purcell School with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian and later studied at the Trinity College of Music and University of Sheffield. He has since composed a considerable amount of music, some of which has been performed.

    Après une Exécution was written following a performance of Debussy’s Prelude Des Pas sur la Neige. A Minimalistic, constricted, two-bar figure of French Augmented Sixth Chords accompany the right hand playing excerpts of the same Prelude.

  • Fuyuyamaji

    Erik Branch

    Erik Branch is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, opera chorister, and actor on stage and screen.

    Fuyuyamaji (Mountain Path in Winter ) draws its inspiration, as Debussy often did, from traditional Japanese visual art, in this case, Sesshu’s famous ink-painting, Winter Landscape. To a lesser degree, it also draws upon the characteristic modes of traditional Japanese music and seeks to use them in a non-traditional context.

  • Golliwogg's Leaf Rag

    Remigio Coco

    Pianist and composer, Remigio Coco is born in Maenza (Italy) in 1965 and lives in Latina, near Rome. He received his Piano Diploma in 1985, and graduated in Electronic Music in 2007. His works range from chamber music to electroacoustic pieces, also with live electronics.

    The name of this piece is self-explanatory: Debussy's "Golliwogg's cake-walk" and Scott Joplin "Maple leaf rag" are blended together, with literal citations of both compositions and a little ironic touch.

  • Prelude in Ab Major

    Cindi Hsu

    Born in Taiwan, Cindi Hsu holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Tung-hai University in Taiwan, and a Master of Arts degree in composition from New York University. A recipient of numerous ASCAPLUS Awards, her music has been performed in Taiwan, France, and the United States. Ms. Hsu currently resides in New York City and is on the faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester. www.youtube.com/HsuCindi

    ‘Prelude in Ab Major’ evokes fond childhood memories of the afternoon my Grandmother taught me ‘Momotaro-San’, a popular Japanese children’s song. I incorporate that tune into this piece, and carefully plant it within the figurations of the left-hand-only first half of the piece. The tune is then joined by the right hand in the second half to form a canon.

  • Le tombeau du piano

    Giuseppe Lupis

    Pianist and composer Giuseppe Lupis regularly appears in the United States, South America, and Europe . His piano works have been performed at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, in Rome, London, New York, Seoul, and across the United States, Canada, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, and South Korea.

    Le tombeau du piano represents a journey into the ideal twenty-fifth prelude by Debussy. Its aim is to enhance piano features as Debussy would probably have, through reminiscences of his style and the style of composers who inspired or were inspired by Debussy, such as Gershwin and Chopin.

  • Wasabi

    Steven H Markowitz

    Steven H Markowitz Studied Composing and Arranging at Dick Groves (Studio City California) in the mid 80's. He enjoys improvising at the piano keyboard, often merging classical and jazz sonorities. Influences include Keith Jarrett, Eric Satie, and Sergei Prokofiev.

    Wasabi includes flavors of Japan with a dollop of French, and a teaspoon of Zes Confrey (American). It is spicy and syncopated.

  • Re-Imagining Syrinx

    Serban Nichifor

    Serban Nichifor (b. 1954, Bucharest-Romania), American Composer, Prizes and Awards: Amsterdam, Tours, Evian, Athens, Urbana-Illinois, Birmingham-Alabama, Toledo, Koln, Karlsruhe, Roma, Trento, Newtown-Wales, Bydgoszcz, Jihlava, Zagreb, a.s.o., Officer of the Order of the Belgium Crown. Over 200 compositions: Symphonic, Vocal-Symphonic, Concertant, Chamber, Vocal, Choral and Computer Music.

    Dedicated to the extraordinary piano virtuoso Stephen Porter, Re-Imagining Syrinx is a very new and special variation of a sequence from the epilogue of my opera The Martyrdom of St Claude Debussy: http://www.myspace.com/video/serbannichiforcomposer5

  • West

    James Soe Nyun

    James SOE NYUN is an artist and composer residing in San Diego, California.

    "West" weaves exoticisms wafting from the continent to the Debussy's west--syncopations from early American jazz and tone clusters from early piano experimenters--into passages more characteristic of the composer. Really, it's not that much of a stretch: Debussy's sound world is a generous and welcoming one.

  • Divertissement

    Dustin Peters

    Toronto-based Dustin Peters studied piano and was an orchestral double-bassist before turning to composition in 2001. Works ranging from string quartet, ballet, orchestral, solo and chamber music have been performed in Canada and Europe; his film scores have been heard in the Berlin, Sao Paolo, and Toronto International Film Festivals.

    This creation of “Divertissement” was a diversion from writing some film music; a chance to open up and let myself decide what was to be imparted rather than following the strictures imposed by the screen. Using something of a “Dubussian” tone palette, the music decided it’s own course!

  • Les bancs de poissons

    Peter Reilich

    Peter Reilich (b. 1957, Los Angeles) was an orphan and was adopted into the musical family of his aunts & cousins in Los Angeles where he began playing the piano at age 6. He also studied spanish dance, acting, orchestral percussion and music composition. Peter has performed as pianist, keyboardist, orchestral percussionist, arranger, composer, lyricist and music director.

    "Les bancs de poissons" (The Schools of Fish) Short work, in the style of Debussy études. Music depicts schools of small fish swimming. Fish quickly darting, to and fro, illustrated with short, fast runs. Some harmonic content reflects Debussy's interest in early American Jazz music. Three simple sections:
    1. fast runs: m. 1-4, 6-10, 12
    2. chordal jump passages: m. 5, 12
    3. four-part Bachian chorale(-ish) passages: m. 11, 14

  • Seduce us badly

    Juan Maria Solare

    Juan Maria Solare, born 1966 in Argentina, works currently in Germany as composer, pianist (contemporary & tango) and teaching at the University of Bremen and at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen. His music has been performed in five continents. Eleven CDs of different performers include at least one piece of him.

    "Seduce us badly" is an anagram of "Claude Debussy". Stephen Porter's project "Re-Imagining Debussy" required the work to "interact in some way with the music or compositional spirit of Debussy". I answered by using some of his technical devices: chords parallelisms, whole-tone scales, brief melodic shapes, central notes and a broad multi-layered texture.

  • Painting III: Claude

    Aurelio Scotto

    Young Italian composer, Aurelio Scotto music has been performed in Italy, Russia, Usa, Malta, Japan, Swizterland, and published by Wicky Music Editions, Taukay Music Editions, Master Symphony Editions, Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Edition. Winner of many National and International Composition Competition. www.aurelioscotto.it

    Painting III: Claude Archaic and exotic sensations are condensed in a refined and elegant tribute to Claude Debussy.

  • Deuxième vocalise pour l'Albatros

    Anne-Marie Turcotte

    Anne-Marie Turcotte, born in Milan, graduated in Piano, Composition, Choral music at the Conservatoire of Milan. Prize winner in international composition competitions. Her music has been commissioned and performed by important orchestras and festivals. Some of her works are published by Ricordi, Edipan, Edizioni Musicali Sinfonica, Bèrben.

    Deuxième vocalise pour l'Albatros is inspired by the imaginative music of the Debussy’s Préludes (especially “Voiles” and “Des pas sur la neige”).

  • Tsukuyomi

    Darren Wirth

    Darren Wirth is the accompanist at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, Colorado. As a pianist, he was a prizewinner in the International Duo Piano Competition in Colorado Springs, and semi-finalist in the International Keyboard Odyssiad. Darren’s compositions have been featured at the Pike’s Peak Young Composer’s Competition, and at the Lamont School of Music’s Student Concert Series.

    Tsukuyomi is the moon god in the Japanese Shinto. Shinto is a collection of folklore and mythology that spiritually connects present-day Japanese with their ancient past. This piece imagines visiting the shrine to Tsukuyomi, located in Kyoto, Japan, in the misty moonlight. This piece is also pays homage to “Pagodes”, from Debussy’s Estampes.