the enchanted piano
Widely regarded as an artist with a passionate voice and an adventurous spirit, pianist ELIZA GARTH has championed some of the most demanding works in the repertoire. Among these are the complete solo piano works of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Donald Martino, which she has recorded on two nationally acclaimed CDs for the Centaur label.
A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Garth is a founding member of the Chamber Players of the League of Composers/ISCM in New York City, and is in frequent demand as a guest artist. She is a member of the music faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
She has been recognized twice by the Maryland State Arts Council with the Individual Artist Award, most recently in 2010 for her performance of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes.
Eliza Garth’s performance of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes at St. Mark's in-the-Bowery on September 21, 2024: a gorgeous autumn afternoon, a fine old Mason and Hamlin, and a very responsive audience. Many thanks to The Village Trip, the Roger Shapero Fund for Music, and St. Mark's for hosting the concert during The Village Trip's amazing annual Festival!
Scott Wheeler, Eliza Garth, Judith Sherman
A wonderful week in August, spent at Oktaven Studios in Mount Vernon, NY, with producer Judith Sherman. The new recording, coming out in 2025, will include works by David Froom, Scott Wheeler (pictured with Judy and Eliza), Frederick Tillis, and Johannes Brahms/Ferruccio Busoni.
Judith Weir: PIANO CONCERTO - NY Premiere, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Center, NYC, 3/30/23
Sheree Clement: TEETH - World Premiere, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Center, NYC, 3/30/23 (Garth commission)
Nomi Epstein: for ELIZA - NY Premiere, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Center, NYC, 3/30/23 (Garth commission)
David Froom: VARIATIONS ON AN EARLY AMERICAN HYMN TUNE - NY Premiere, Bargemusic, NYC, 6/23/23
Scott Wheeler: BEACH SPRING - World Premiere, Bargemusic, NYC, 6/23/23 (Garth commission)
Jeffrey Mumford: resonant echoes - NY Premiere, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Center, NYC, 9/10/23
Robert Gibson: PRAYER - World Premiere, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Center, NYC, 9/10/23
Jeffrey Mumford: resonant echoes - DC Premiere, St. Mark’s, Capitol Hill, 9/16/23
Robert Gibson: PRAYER - DC Premiere, St. Mark’s, Capitol Hill, 9/16/23
Eliza Garth, Artistic Director of Music from Poplar Hill, is featured in the Southern Maryland Chronicle.
Against all odds, Music from Poplar Hill - the Jo Ricks Music Series presented its inaugural events in the fall of 2020, under the artistic direction of Eliza Garth. With extreme care, social distancing, small audiences, windows open, an outdoor tent, low COVID numbers in the county, and the state and local governments permitting small gatherings, the concerts went forward - and were a hit, with COVID-capacity attendance. A short (20’) video has just been completed about these remarkable events; for more info visit www.musicfrompoplarhill.org
Concerts are planned for the fall of 2021.
Eliza Garth is the Artistic Director for a new concert series in Southern Maryland, called Music from Poplar Hill: The Jo Ricks Music Series. Its mission is to bring acclaimed artists of a wide range of musical styles and cultures to St. Mary’s County, to share their music through affordable live performances and to share their musical knowledge with children and youth. The series is the first of its kind in St. Mary’s County, and the only one currently serving Valley Lee and nearby areas. Created from the belief that music nourishes the spirit, enriches life and promotes a sense of community, Music from Poplar Hill: The Jo Ricks Music Series embodies the spirit of Jo Ricks, a beloved member of the Southern Maryland community who had a gift for bringing people together through music. Ms. Garth is one of the founders of the series. To learn more, visit www.musicfrompoplarhill.org
Live performance, August 30, 2019, opening concert at the Piano Festival by the River in St. Mary’s County, Maryland: Variations on an Early American Hymn Tune by David Froom.
On Tuesday, March 20, Eliza Garth appeared as a guest artist with the Clazzical Project, performing Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik -- George Crumb's stunning tribute to Thelonious Monk's enduring standard 'Round Midnight. The concert took place at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
...from American Record Guide:
This album of piano works—Preludes by Sheree Clement and Of Points Fixed and Fluid by Perry Goldstein—presents a cornucopia of sounds and feelings brought to expert, breathing life by pianist Eliza Garth. Clement’s piano preludes have titles like ‘Gently, Steadily’ and ‘Dramatically’ along with ‘Moderato’ and ‘Allegro’. Clement’s writing is direct, almost melod- ic, with touches of Gershwin as she executes an idea or parses a technique in each of these short movements. The seed at the heart of each of these movements (two dominant 7th chords in the first prelude, thirds in the 11th prelude) dictates its harmonic and tonal cen- ters, and following these free-flowing thoughts as they flourish from seeds into gestural vines is an intellectual adventure. Goldstein’s Of Points Fixed and Fluid is a 15-minute piece that begins with a theme that rumbles in the bass, full of nervous energy that suddenly finds itself in a beautiful plateau of static, soft bell-like gestures in the higher register of the piano. The piece vacillates between the two, exploring each space before revisiting the other. It’s a sonata that is not a sonata but just as satisfying. Garth’s preternatural sense of timing is on grand display in this piece: she’s given each energetic area the pace it needs to haunt and mesmerize her audience.
...[translation] from Kathodlk [Italy]:
As the title of this newest release by Albany Records promises, it is a real tour de force for the bravissima American pianist Eliza Garth. The series of thirteen preludes written by Sheree Clement over almost forty years (!) surprisingly draw a rather uniform parable, characterized by a progressive traversal beyond the boundaries of tonality to arrive at a harmonically harsh language, though not without moments of contemplative and introspective beauty. La Clement loves to work with quick figures of notes that run in very complex rhythmic passages, to be often hampered by abrupt interruptions or impervious detours. If I had to mention a reference for these works, I would summon Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies. Equally virtuosic, although very distant from the stylistic point of view, is the composition Of Points Fixed and Fluid by Perry Goldstein, an author who likes to juxtapose musical materials of a different character and style, sometimes opposite - in the manner of Stravinsky or, more recently, Fitkin -, developing them separately and then colliding them, triggering dense and tension-rich dynamics. In this case, the contrast is between a hypnotic sequence of repeated notes and a set of syncopated figures that recall jazz. The way in which Goldstein applies this technique is personal and remarkable, as demonstrated also in other previous compositions (I am thinking, for example, of the Blow saxophone quartet). In this case, the conclusion is less pacified and leaves something (deliberately) unresolved, even in the context of a precise formal design. Eliza Garth moves at ease in such diverse expressive worlds, which demonstrate the vitality of contemporary music, especially American, for piano.
...from [Q]onStage [New York}:
Pianist Eliza Garth’s latest Albany Records release, “Tour de Force,” is the perfect music for the Rites, and the Rights, of Spring. In this season of protest and forthcoming change, the album consists of music by two contemporary composers, from whom, through Garth’s hands, we get a sense of turmoil and a world to come. The first body of selections is Sheree Clement’s Piano Preludes, a series that, while written over the course of a generation, feel thematically related. These pieces range from one minute to eight, so they are piano tapas, tonal poems that resonate with sturm-und-drang and change, and each has its own wisdom. There are thirteen in all and the questions asked, and sometimes answered, are ideal for Spring listening, with the latest Nor’easter whistling at the windows. Also featured is “Of Points Fixed and Fluid,” by Perry Goldstein, which brings challenges and wisdom as well. This hero’s quest of virtuosity dazzles with the knowledge that it takes a pianist of deep skill and experience to wrest the nuanced phrases from a work of great breadth. Garth’s phrasing, nuance, dynamic expertise, and virtuosity answer the challenges posed by each of these composers, in an album where I hear echoes of the passion of the Parkland students, the turmoil of our current political situation, and the warmth of the Summer to come, all distilled in one beautifully movable feast. Download from your favorite music service or purchase the CD today for yourself or as a gift. Music always fits!
...from Textura [Ontario, Canada]:
Remarkably, Sheree Clement's thirteen preludes, which constitute the greater share of this nearly hour-long collection of solo piano music, were written sporadically between 1978 and 2006, though no one would ever guess as much given how cohesive they are when performed as a group by Eliza Garth. Though the album title could justifiably have been selected with the pianist in mind, the title in fact derives from an observation made by Clement, specifically that while the thirteen preludes are effective when performed in groupings of three or four, they're a tour de force when presented as a thirteen-part set; while there's a descriptive dimension in her word choice, there's also a qualitative one that references the extreme range the preludes encompass, from, in her own estimation, “powerful and thundering to gossamer and twinkling.”
Perry Goldstein's Of Points Fixed and Fluid, a 1995 work commissioned by Garth, forms a superb partner to Clement's in countering the preludes' concision with a single-movement setting that dynamically contains multitudes yet at the same time is complementary in many ways to Clement's. Though both are demanding works that call upon the virtuosity of the performer, Garth, a faculty member at St. Mary's College of Maryland and a contemporary music champion who's premiered many new works, proves herself up to the challenge.
The pressure-free manner by which Clement's preludes came into being probably has much to do with why they seem so cohesive. Writing them on her baby grand piano, she created them, it seems, more for herself than any potential audience or with any deadline in mind, and in the absence of such determinations the self-contained explorations gradually accumulated into a set of pieces ranging from “epigrams to torrid essays.” Clement herself surmises that if there are connections between them, thematic and otherwise, it's perhaps because in writing them she was constantly drawing from a consistent creative source.
In its meditative character, the first prelude exudes a questioning quality, as if soberly contemplating possible directions to pursue. Punctuated by aggressive chords, the livelier second perpetuates the first's explorative approach though escalates the intensity level, the music blossoming confidently following the reserved first, after which the third reestablishes a gentler and less abrasive tone whilst retaining the harmonic adventurousness of its predecessor. Appearing in turn are the quasi-hymnal fourth, the ponderous fifth, the skittish sixth, the mercurial ninth, galaxies-spanning tenth, and upwardly spiraling eleventh, all of them articulated with sensitivity by the pianist. The subtlest hint of a folk song emerges now and then in these oft-unpredictable pieces, though more as a sidelong allusion than direct quotation, and chromatic lines of consonance and dissonance are crossed repeatedly though never without musicality or purpose.
Of Points Fixed and Fluid functions on one level as an exploration of contrapuntal possibilities, with Goldstein (b. 1952) juxtaposing sustained notes and chords with rapid streams of jazzy, syncopated figures. Such bifurcation isn't treated baldly, with one part simply alternating with the other; instead, separations between them are blurred and rendered more fluid when each seeps into the other. In place of collision, overlap, interlacing, and intermingling arise to often spellbinding effect, and though quiet, tolling sections intersect with concussive pounding during the fourteen-minute presentation, one comes away from the piece less cognizant of disparate elements in conflict than subtle integration. In both performances, Garth's command of dynamics impresses, specifically the deftness with which she alternates between a delicate hush and forceful declamation. One need look no further than her handling of Clement's iconoclastic tenth prelude as an example, but evidence of her bravura playing is present throughout. Tour de Force turns out to be an applicable title on multiple levels as opposed to one only.April 2018
As part of the 2018 Composers Now Festival in New York City, Eliza Garth will perform works by Sheree Clement and Perry Goldstein, celebrating the March release of Tour de Force - her new CD on Albany Records featuring Clement and Goldstein. The Festival performance will take place at 7:30PM on Friday, February 9, at the Tenri Cultural Institute, located at 43 W 13th St, in New York City. Admission, at the door, is $20 General; $10 Students/Seniors.
More info about this event and about the 2018 Composers Now Festival.
The Composers Now Festival empowers living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their musical contributions to our society. During the month of February, the Festival brings together dozens of performances presented by venues, ensembles, orchestras, opera companies, dance companies and many other innovative events throughout New York City. Experience the sounds and get to know the creators behind the music. From jazz to indie, from classical to electronic and beyond, join us on a sonic journey through the landscape of the arts of our time. Composers will be in attendance at all events and will be interacting with audiences. Composers Now is a project partner of The Fund for the City of New York. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the ASCAP Foundation, the Cheswatyr Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund and the Newburgh Institute for the Arts and Ideas.
Tour de Force, a new CD recording by Eliza Garth of virtuoso piano works by American composers Sheree Clement and Perry Goldstein, is now available on the Albany label. Learn more...
