Piano: An All-Woman Show Tour Launch, with Brianna Conrey
Local pianist and storyteller Brianna Conrey returns to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center stage to launch her tour of Piano: An All-Woman Show.
Debuted at Kuumbwa Jazz last year, Piano: An All-Woman Show is a wide-ranging celebration of women composers spanning nearly 250 years of music written for solo keyboard instruments. Like women today, these composers struggled with sexism, with imposter syndrome, with being mothers who were also artists, and with gaining professional recognition. Most of them wondered if they were really amateurs underneath it all. Yet they composed anyway. This show celebrates their music and their stories.
Featured composers include Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, a musician in the court of Louis XIV of France; Marianna Martines, a favorite duet partner of Mozart’s; Florence Price, an African-American woman who was widely admired in her lifetime but then nearly forgotten because her music was mostly unpublished; and several others representing a variety of time periods, from when Bach was two years old to the early 20th century.
An audience favorite and quarter-finalist at the 2016 Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, Brianna Conrey is known for her elegantly expressive interpretations of familiar standards as well as for “pushing the repertoire envelope,” resulting in “standout performances” (Theater Jones). Critics have praised her “glittering scales,” “sparkling voicing,” and “well-shaped, clarified vision.”
Equally at home with words as she is with music, Brianna’s “magical,” “heartwarming” stories balance poignant observation with the “joyfully humorous.” Her writing focuses on modern womanhood, creativity, and family life, and has been featured in P.S. I Love You, Forge, and Human Parts.
According to audiences, Brianna’s show is “astonishingly beautiful and informative,” combining “warm, wise, and funny curation” with “soulful and formidable artistry.” After this evening’s tour launch, she’ll be going on the road to other venues in the Bay Area, Southern California, and Austin, TX.
This performance is made possible with support from Frank Verprauskus, in loving memory of his late wife Karen Skonberg Verprauskus.
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