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NEWS & UPCOMING EVENTS
April 15th and 22nd - 6pm
(Composer Angie Mullins)
KZN Philharmonic Orchestra Presents:
"Intimate Encounters" - Chamber Orchestra Series at the Jewish Club
Created by David Plylar and Lyk Temmingh
Program 1:
Faure - Masques et Bergamasques
Ravel - Le Tombeau de Couperin
Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony
*Angie Mullins - Murder In the Kitchen (World Premiere - South African Composer)
Program 2:
*Malcolm Dedman - Dances Concertantes (World Premiere - South African Composer)
Bloch - Concerto Grosso No. 1 [featuring Liezl-Maret Jacobs, pianist]
Stravinsky - Pulcinella Suite
Walton - Facade No. 1
July 1st and 3rd, 2012 - 9:30pm and 3pm
Colossus - New Music Chamber Concert
KZN Philharmonic Musicians
with special guest speaker Nicholas Nicolaidis
Program:
Carlo Gesualdo - “Moro, Lasso, al Mio Duolo” (1611)
Maurice Ravel - Introduction and Allegro (1905)
Luigi Dallapiccola - Piccola Musica Notturna (1954)
Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together (1972)
David Plylar - Colossus (2012)
Rhodes Chapel - National Arts Festival
Grahamstown, South Africa
August 31st, 2011
Moshito Music Confernce and Exhibition
Guest Panel Speaker -
"Are Local Orchestras Doing Enough to Promote the Music of South African Composers?"
Sci Bono Discovery Centre
Johannesberg, South Africa
RECENT EVENTS
August 20th, 2011 - 8:00pm
KZNPO Gala Concert with Johan Botha (tenor)
Teatro - Montecasino
Johannesburg, South Africa
R150-R300
July 3rd, 2011 - 3:00pm
National Arts Festival - Grahamstown
KZN Philharmonic Orchestra - Gala Concert
Richard Cock, Conductor
Monument Theatre
Grahamstown, South Africa
April 4th, 2011 - 12:15-1:00pm
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Lunch-Hour Concert Series - Howard College Theatre
Program of Contemporary Chamber Music
Durban, South Africa
FREE
Come hear the world-premiere of the 2005 version of my Faust Variations! Pianist Jeremy Samolesky, Assistant Professor of Piano at Auburn University, will be giving four upcoming performances:
February 16th, 2011
"The Metro Music Forum" of Birmingham
Samford University, 10am
Birmingham, AL
USA
Program:
Plylar: Faust Variations
Liszt: Dante Sonata
Performance will include an informal lecture about the two pieces.
February 17th, 2011
University of Montevallo, 7:30pm
Montevallo, AL
USA
February 28th, 2011
Auburn University, 7:30pm
Auburn, AL
USA
March 6th, 2011
University of Alabama-Huntsville, 3pm
Huntsville, AL
The program for the final three performances will be:
Beethoven:
Sonata No. 31 in A-flat, Op. 110
Plylar: Faust Variations
Liszt: Dante Sonata
I am very excited that Jeremy will be performing this final version of my Faust Variations, as I have always thought that pianists would enjoy playing it. The full title of the work is Fantasy-Variations on thematic material from Liszt's Faust Symphony; I plan to update the texts page of this website soon with the program notes. I am also pleased to see my piece paired with the Beethoven Op. 110 Sonata and Liszt's Dante Sonata (or rather, his Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata). Strangely enough, I was practicing both of those pieces during the period in which I composed the Faust Variations, so it seems fitting on many grounds.
March 25th, 2011 - 8:00pm
Florida State University
Dohnányi Recital Hall - Faculty/Guest Artist Series
David Leung, violin & Jeremy Samolesky, piano
Program to include works for solo piano and violin/piano by David Plylar
Tallahassee, FL
March 30th, 2011 - 7:30pm
Auburn University
Guest Artist / Faculty Recital
David Leung, violin & Jeremy Samolesky, piano
Program to include work for violin/piano by David Plylar
Auburn, AL
December 4th, 2010
Baroque 2000 - Newcastle, SA
Baroque Ensemble, featuring works by Lully and Vivaldi
November, 2010
In addition to my Liszt
article being published in the American LIszt Society Journal last month, several projects relating to new music through the KZN Philharmonic will soon be launched, more details to come in the next few weeks!
I have been performing as one of the KZN Philharmonic's pianists and am highly anticipating our forthcoming production of Prokofiev's "Cinderella" with the Cape Town City Ballet Company.
NewMusicSA - International Society for Contemporary Music, South African Section
I
have recently become a member of this active and important organization.
September, 2010
I am pleased to announce that I have taken a new position as the project coordinator for the new music initiative of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, located in Durban, South Africa. This website will be updated soon to reflect these changes; in any case I look forward to working with the composers and musicians of South Africa in the upcoming months!
July, 2010
I have been preparing a concert transcription of Mahler's Fifth Symphony for solo piano, and am in the process of engraving it now. I am expecting to make it available in the Fall of 2010. This is not a "reduction," but rather a performable version of the piece. Although the task has been daunting at times, it is coming together well, and I hope to entice some intrepid pianists to perform it next year!
I will also be launching an online store which will make it easier to acquire my self-published scores and transcriptions. More on this soon!
July 9th, 2010
Zuzanna Szewczyk, piano
Smith Opera House
Geneva, NY
Program of solo piano music, including my Grey Mass
April 27th, 2010 ~ $5/$10
7:15pm Pre-Concert Lecture
8:00pm Concert
SUNY Fredonia - Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall
Collaboration with Proper Glue Percussion Duo and Guests
Featuring premieres by Paul Coleman and David Plylar
Fredonia, NY
$10 General Admission, $5 Students, At the Door
April 27th, 2010 ~ 5:00-6:00pm FREE
Suny Fredonia - 1022 Nathan Hall
Contemporary Music Forum - Q&A
Collaboration with Proper Glue Percussion Duo and Guests
Fredonia, NY ~ FREE
April 27th, 2010 ~ 12:00pm
Valu Home Center
New Music for Wrenches ~ Proper Glue Duo
Presentations by Paul Coleman and David Plylar
10378 Bennett Road Rte. 60
Fredonia, NY ~ FREE
April 26th, 2010 ~ $10 Suggested Donation
7:15pm Pre-Concert Lecture
8:00pm Concert
Christ Church
Rochester, NY
$10 Suggested Donation, At the Door
April 26th, 2010 ~ 12:00pm FREE
Mayer Hardware, Inc.
New Music for Wrenches ~ Proper Glue Duo
Presentations by Paul Coleman and David Plylar
226 Winton Road North
Rochester, NY ~ Free
April 25th, 2010 ~ 8:30pm FREE
Messinger Hall - 10 Gibbs Street
Open Rehearsal ~ Free
Rochester, NY
April, 2010
Four new pieces of mine were premiered at the end of April:
Socket Monkey, for 24 wrenches, 2 temple blocks and bass drum;
Grey Mass, for solo piano (part of set of piano pieces entitled Conversations with Scriabin);
The Prophecy of Dante, with Commentary by Keats, for soprano, oboe, violin, 2 percussionists and piano (sung text by Byron)
Reliquary (selected Relics), for piano and celesta
These pieces were performed as part of a concert series of music by Paul Coleman and myself:
Out Of Context: Tour II
April, 2010
Performances in Rochester and Fredonia, New York
In collaboration with composer Paul Coleman, the Proper Glue Percussion Duo,
Jamie Jordan, soprano; David Leung, violin; Zuzanna Szewczyk, piano; and Justin Hoke, celesta
PROGRAM
Toolshedding (Paul Coleman)
Fractured Colloquy (David Plylar)
Into Winters' Grey (Coleman)
Phantom Vignettes(Plylar)
Duo-duo (Coleman)
Grey Mass (Plylar)
Reliquary: Selected Relics (Plylar)
Violin Variations [-violations] (Coleman)
The Prophecy of Dante, with Commentary by Keats (Plylar)
Coupling (Coleman)
Socket Monkey (Plylar)
March, 2010
Meet the Composer Foundation -
I received a grant to discuss my new compositions during a joint-concert tour with "Out of Context" and the "Proper Glue Duo" in April. This grant is funded in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program. In addition to our formal concerts, the Proper Glue Duo will be presenting my music for two wrenchophones and bass drum, "Socket Monkey," at two hardware stores in Rochester and Fredonia, NY.
May 26th, 2010 ~ 8:00pm
Alfred Newman Recital Hall
University of Southern California
LA Composers Project
What's Next
The new music collective What's Next will be including my septet The Triumph of Sisyphus on a concert in their LA Composers Project series. This series consists of three concerts at 8pm on the evenings of May 26th-May 28th, all at the Alfred Newman Recital Hall at the University of Southern California. Try to attend all three concerts if possible, as there will be a wide range of new music presented, including works by my friends Christopher Brakel, Vera Ivanova and Isaac Schankler!
February, 2010
I'm very pleased to announce that a large article of mine will be published this Spring in Volume 59 of the Journal of the American Liszt Society. The article was adapted from my dissertation, and is entitled "Franz Liszt’s Trois odes funèbres: A Case Study in Intertextuality." I hope that you have a chance to read it--in any case, I encourage you to play through the piano versions of Liszt's Funeral Odes, which are truly remarkable pieces.
New pdf samples of recent transcriptions are now available on the compositions page! Many of these works have ossia passages for an extended range oboe (it possesses a low A, a half-step below a standard modern oboe). The instrument has an amazing sound, and my arm did not have to be twisted too far to write for it. Check out Alison Lowell's "Loboe" project blog for more information about the instrument and her work to promote its use.
Several new transcriptions for oboe, horn and piano will be premiered during Out of Context's upcoming tour of Colorado and Montana: Saint-Saens' symphonic poem Danse Macabre, transcribed and expanded by Liszt for solo piano, and further adapted/transcribed by myself for our trio; a Chopin Etude (Op.25,5), along with the previously announced transcriptions of Brahms (Poco Allegretto, from Symphony No.3) and Beethoven/Liszt (Adelaide).
Current Composition Projects
Fracternal Twins
Two percussionists, woods and metals
Title TBA
Organ
Title TBA
Film Score, various instrumentation
Duration: c.90'