CONOR HANICK

Photos from a great week in Pittsburgh at the Beyond Microtonal Festival with my ever-inspiring friends in the JACK Quartet. Here, music of Marcos Balter and a new double-keyboard quintet by Mathew Rosenblum. (February 2025: photos by David Julian Roth)

CONCERTS ADDED

February 21, 2025

Excited to join violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Seth Parker Woods, and principle dancers of the New York City Ballet for a New York Philharmonic Nightcap performances this week at David Geffan Hall in Lincoln Center. Never thought I’d say that sentence out loud. Whew. Tickets here.

Music of Max Richter, Carlos Simon, George Walker, Jesse Montgomery, and others.

NEW ALBUM

February 19, 2025

Listen wherever you listen. Maybe even buy it. Many thanks to Sandbox, Chris, Mike, and the myriad others who made this remarkable record possible. Happy listening.

2024 BEST OF

January 8, 2025

Pleased to that my Ustvolskaya recital (and HARAWI) found its way onto a couple local “Best Of” lists:

• Joshua Kosman, On A Pacific Aisle: “Objects in the Mirror” (Ustvolskaya Sonatas, and Messiaen Harawi)
• David Bratman, San Francisco Classical Voice: “Best Classical Performances 2024” (Ustvolskaya Sonatas)

Harawi (Sept. 27) Messiaen’s rarely heard song cycle from 1945, performed by soprano Julia Bullock and pianist Conor Hanick, would have been a delight under any circumstances. The American Modern Opera Company’s staging, which added dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber into the mix, made it a full-on immersive experience.

Galina Ustvolskaya, Piano Sonatas (Oct. 28) In an unforgettable recital presented by Other Minds, pianist Conor Hanick played all six of the Russian composer’s piano sonatas back-to-back, an hour’s worth of fiercely original music ranging from the whimsical to the clangorous. - Kosman

Pianist Conor Hanick played these six rarely heard ultra-modernist sonatas in one unbroken 70-minute set, presented by Other Minds. This is tough and brutal music with tremendous tension and drive. But it spoke its strange and hard language clearly and compellingly here, and it was of obvious intellectual substance. Challenging listening but so artistically satisfying. (Read SFCV’s review of the production.) - Bratman

RECENT PRESS and GOINGS ON

October 30, 2024

Busy times, lots of playing, plenty of press. Here is some of it:

Wall Street Journal, “Harawi Review: AMOC Brings Harawi to California”
San Francisco Classical Voice, “Julia Bullock Sings of Loss and New Love in Harawi”
Opera Wire, “Cal Performances Review: Harawi”
Los Angeles Times, “Julia Bullock Reinvent[s] the Old Song Recital for a New Generation”
Seen and Heard International, “Extra Dimensions of Dance Add Lift to Messiaen’s Song Cycle in Berkeley”
Santa Barbara Independent, “Greater than the Sum of its Musical and Mythic Parts”

And after that, a new piano concerto by Carlos Izcaray and the Alabama Symphony (great band!), and then back to Berkeley for the complete Ustvolskaya Sonatas, which was thoughtfully written about by Joshua Kosman on his excellent substack, On A Pacific Aisle.

The recital consisted of Ustvolskaya’s six Piano Sonatas, a stretch of about an hour’s worth of music composed between 1947 and 1988. It’s not accurate to say that the music is unlike anything you’ve heard — Bach’s example is everywhere, and the influence of Debussy, Cowell and even Shostakovich (Ustvolskaya’s teacher and sometime lover) can be detected now and again. But these pieces are ravishing in their starkness and unpredictability, and Hanick played them with almost demonic clarity. (Joshua Kosman)

😈

HARAWI

August 31, 2024

Touring this fall: Hancher, Cal Performances, Wallis, Ojai, SB Arts and Lectures.

2024-2024 SEASON UPDATE

August 31, 2024

Big year coming up. Here’s the Fall Season, replete with amazing repertoire and inspiring collaborations. It starts with the premiere of Nico Muhly’s final segment of Bell Études, written for me over the course of four years since 2020. After that HARAWI (AMOC*’s production of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi) goes on tour with stops in Iowa and California, including Hancher Auditorium, Cal Performances, The Wallis, and SB Arts and Lectures. (See above). After that, concerts with the Alabama Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Timo Andres, JACK Quartet, a new piece by Matt Aucoin, and many other exciting events. Hope to see you.

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