Pianist Miki Sawada presents:

Gather Hear MA has been a long time in the making, as it was originally planned for 2020 and postponed due to COVID-19. Now rescheduled for May 2021, all concerts will take place outdoors and socially distanced. As always, Gather Hear Concerts are free.

OUR $10,000 FUNDRAISING CHALLENGE IS LIVE, please consider giving here if you can!

Concert Info (updated as links go live):

• 5/6, 6PM Co-Creative Center [New Bedford] Facebook event / Web listing

• 5/8, 3PM Brockton Main Library [Brockton] Facebook event / Web listing

• 5/9, 3PM West Medford Community Center [Medford] RESERVATION REQUIRED Facebook event
  ! Capacity limited to 25 due to COVID restrictions, reserve a seat now !

• 5/11, 2PM The Point After Club [Lawrence]
  This event will be limited to guests of the Point After Club, a mental illness support group.

• 5/13, 6PM Chelsea Square (Winnisimmet Park) [Chelsea], presented by Chelsea Prospers Facebook event

• 5/15, 3PM Mill Street [Fitchburg], presented by ReImagine North of Main
  Facebook event

• 5/18, 6:30PM Dewey Hall [Sheffield] Facebook event / Web listing
  ! Space is limited, reserve a seat now !

• 5/22, 4PM The Spot Lot [Easthampton] presented by Easthampton City Arts
  Web listing

• 5/23, TOURISTS [North Adams] RESERVATION REQUIRED Facebook event / Web listing and reservation !!!5/22 UPDATE: WEATHER DISRUPTION: SHOW WILL NOW START AT 12PM NOON!!!

• 5/25, 6PM Orange Peel Bakery [Martha’s Vineyard] Facebook event

• 5/27, 5:30PM UU Urban Ministry [Roxbury, Boston] Facebook event

• 5/28, 2PM The Boston Home [Dorchester, Boston]
  This event will be limited to residents of the Boston Home, a care facility for adults with advanced multiple sclerosis.

• 6/2, 6PM Ames Free Library [Easton] Facebook event / Web listing
  PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED FROM ITS ORIGINAL DATE OF 5/30 DUE TO POOR WEATHER.

What will I play?

View full concert program here

• Florence Price: Sonata in E minor (1931)

• Ariel Friedman: “Before I Die…” (2020)

• Franz Liszt: Sonata in B Minor (1853)

This program is a reflection of the past year we collectively experienced in America.

Florence Price was a Black woman who lived 1887-1953. She spent most of her adult life in Chicago, but received training from New England Conservatory in Boston, one of the only serious music conservatories at the time that accepted non-white students. Price, a humble and quiet person, shattered many glass ceilings, including being the first Black woman to have a work performed by a major symphony orchestra (Chicago Symphony Orchestra). As the Black Lives Matter prevailed in our lives last year, I reassessed the repertoire I’ve been taught to prioritize throughout my life - specifically those of white male composers. In my quest to learn more about composers who have been pushed to the margins, I fell in love with Florence Price’s Sonata and it has been a joy to spend many dozens of hours “conversing” with her, imagining who she was a person and the life she lived, through her music.

Ariel’s piece was written exclusively for Gather Hear Massachusetts. It was inspired by artist Candy Chang’s “Before I Die” public art project, where murals are put up in public spaces with the phrase “Before I die, I want to…” and passers-by complete the sentence in chalk. It is about spontaneous community making through public art, and gently invites us to ponder our death and mortality - something we as a society are not very comfortable doing. Ariel’s composition will involve audience participation, and is a moment for collectively contemplating death, which has pervaded our lives in the last year.

Liszt’s notoriously difficult Piano Sonata is one of the most dramatic pieces in the piano repertoire. With seemingly never-ending piano pyrotechnics and lyrical sections pouring out of our most passionate emotions, it is a piece that makes me feel fully alive and in-the-moment, and awes me again and again. Knowing performances and gathering in public can never be taken for granted again, I had to play something epic!!

Who is funding tour?

Many hands help make Gather Hear Tour a reality! We rely heavily on individual donors; please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to our fundraiser here.

• New Music USA Project Grant (received 2020), to commission Ariel’s new work

• Massachusetts Cultural Council We received small grants from the Local Cultural Council Programs of: Easthampton, Lawrence, Sheffield, Brockton, Pepperell, Fitchburg, Martha’s Vineyard, Easton, Northern Berkshire, and Medford