Earlier this month I played the first performance of The Inland Sea (Piano Sonata No. 3) by my Penn faculty colleague Jay Reise. This was part of a program entirely of Jay’s music in honor of his retirement from Penn. Here are a few pictures from the occasion:
Penn faculty, current and emeritus. Seated, L to R: George Crumb, Thomas Connolly, Richard Wernick, Lawrence Bernstein; standing, L to R: Jay Reise, current department chair Timothy Rommen, Anna Weesner, myself:
Jay with Penn alums Ke-Chia Chen, Melissa Dunphy, and Scott Ordway. Penn Music’s Director of Sound and Music Technology Eugene Lew is in the background:
Here I am presenting a gift to Jay – an album containing letters from over three dozen former students, colleagues, performers, congratulating him on his retirement:
And here is Jay with the performers of his work for string trio and shakuhachi: L to R: James Shlefer, shakuhachi; Irena Muresanu, violin; Jay Reise; Eliana Razzino Yang, cello; and David Yang, viola. Huge thanks to David Yang who took care of programming the concert and lining up the performers.