April 8, 2022: The Washington Post
April 8, 2022
"After a debilitating stroke, a pianist feels his way back to music"
By Michael Brodeur
https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/04/08/haskell-small-pianist-stroke/
October 1, 2021: MSR Classics releases 2 CDS.
October 16, 2021
MSR Classics has
released two CDs of Haskell’s performances of J.S.
Bach’s Keyboard Partitas 1,
4 & 5 and Keyboard Partitas 2, 3 & 6. Read
reviews and more about the
disks at https://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1717 and https://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1718.
October 29, 2021: Groupmuse Livestream Interview
October 16, 2021
October 29 -Groupmuse livestream on YouTube, hosted by Sarah Small. Another chance to enjoy Small performing his program of original arrangements for piano right hand alone of music by Scarlatti, Schubert, Bach and his most recent composition, Diary of a Stroke: The Adventures of Herb and Pete.
Click here for more information.
October 17, 2021: Lyceum, Alexandria, Va. Concert
October 16, 2021
October 17 (and archived) - Broadcast of pre-recorded concert at the
Lyceum in Alexandria, VA, as part of Washington Municipal
Philharmonic's Online Concert Series. Haskell
performs a program of original
arrangements for piano right hand alone of music
by Scarlatti, Schubert, Bach and his most recent composition, Diary of a Stroke: The Adventures of Herb and Pete.
Click here for more information.
September 29, 2021: Juhl Media Interview
October 16, 2021
Juhl
Media presented Haskell in conversation with filmmaker Ching
Juhl on Wednesday, September 29, live on Juhl Media's YouTube channel. They talked about Haskell's ongoing recovery and rehabilitation from a recent stroke and the music he's been arranging and composing for right hand alone. The conversation is archived on YouTube here.
Covid-19
April 24, 2020
Haskell Small's response to the Corona Virus
(click here)
New: Small's A Journey in Silence: Reflections on the Book of Hours
June 6, 2016
New CD of Small's A Journey in Silence: Reflections on the Book of Hours
http://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1601
Stunning review of recent New York concert
June 6, 2016
Beautiful new video featuring Small's Journeys in Silence
June 6, 2016
Beautiful new video featuring Small's Journeys in Silence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEZ3MnJgvIM
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
May 9, 2016
On
Tuesday, May 10, at 8 pm, Small travels uptown to Harlem, with a
performance on the new series The Crypt Sessions presented by Unison Media. The program includes works by
Beethoven, Arvo Pärt and Alan Hovhaness alongside Tavener's Pratirupa
and an improvisation by Small. The concert is in the atmospheric
crypt area at the Church of the Intercession (550 West 155th
Street). There is a pre-concert reception at 7 pm, with Indian
hors d'oeuvres prepared by the acclaimed chef Yamini Joshi of The League of Kitchens. Tickets are $35 in advance and include the reception and the
concert. Tickets are not available at the door, and space is
limited.
Monday, May 9, 2016
May 9, 2016
On
Monday, May 9, at 7:30 pm, Small performs at St. Malachy's/The
Actors' Chapel (239 West 49th Street in midtown Manhattan). The
program features New York premieres of John Tavener's Pratirupa
for solo piano and Small's own composition, A
Journey in Silence: Reflections on the Book of Hours.
Tickets are $20 ($15 for students and seniors), available at the
door.
Music and Vision reviews Small's new Rothko CD
June 19, 2015
'... an artist at the summit of his creative powers ...
If you want to hear what decades of dedication and hard work
sound like, purchase a copy of Haskell Small's recording of
original music for piano. This is a man who has mastered his
craft as a composer. He also happens to play the piano
beautifully.
The disc begins with a lengthy piece inspired by the work of
American painter Mark Rothko. Somewhat akin to Mussorgsky's Pictures
at an Exhibition, the music takes its cue from
individual paintings — in this case, four canvases that
surround a solitary wooden bench. Much like the room after
which it is modelled, the music is spacious — filled with
prolonged chords and deeply resonant moments of silence. In
the hands of a lesser composer, this type of atmospheric music
can turn quickly into n'importe quoi. Small's form, however,
has a sense of inevitability to it that comes only with years
of experience. Much of this smoothness owes to the changing of
just one or two parameters between sections — enough to keep
our interest while maintaining a subtle effect overall.
This modest rate of change also makes stark contrasts all the
more forceful. Every now and then, Small interrupts the
beautiful wash of sound with a flourish of excitement,
propelled by a tireless rhythmic drive that showcases the
composer's impressive mobility at the piano.
Visions of Childhood, the second major work included,
features many of the same compositional elements that pervade
The Rothko Room. Once again, the composer avoids
using silence as an ad hoc special effect, using it instead to
give shape to the music. In addition to these similarities,
listeners will also note substantial differences. Perhaps most
notable is the jocular character that comes through in several
of the Visions. 'Playing Rough' exemplifies this side of
Small's musical persona, though much like Schumann's Kinderszenen,
the music exhibits an adult's perspective on childhood; the
only child at play is an imagined one — a shadow of times
past. Small portrays this perspective musically by combining
exuberant (youthful) rhythms with a more serious (mature)
harmonic palette. The result is quite unique.
Continuing his homage to Schumann, Small ends his Visions
with a piece reminiscent of 'Der Dichter Spricht' ('The Poet
Speaks' — the final movement of Schumann's Kinderszenen).
Much like its forebear, 'Lullaby' has a transcendent quality
that encapsulates the emotional journey of looking back on
one's past. Small's sensitive performance, which does much to
enhance that emotion, brings to mind Alfred Cortot's inspiring
performance of 'Der Dichter Spricht' — no small praise!
In keeping with the meditative state induced by 'Lullaby',
Small ends his recording with A Glimpse of Silence.
Even more than The Rothko Room, this piece is a masterclass in
giving shape and direction to sustained sounds and silences,
which, in a sense, is the overarching theme of the collection.
Once again, we witness an artist at the summit of his creative
powers, moulding beautiful sculptures from the most basic
elements of our sonic universe.
Copyright © 16 June 2015 Andrew Schartmann,
Connecticut USA
New works in theater production by Musica Aperta
May 13, 2015
Two new works by Haskell Small,
The Golden Spear and
Silent Prayer, will be included in
The Interior Castle, a mixed-media theater production by Musica Aperta (
http://musicaaperta.org)
to be premiered on May 29th, 2015, at St. Ignatius Church, Boston
College with subsequent performances in a number of U.S. cities.
Haskell Small to tour Japan in December, 2015
May 13, 2015
Haskell Small will tour Japan in December, 2015 performing his composition The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence and Schubert's great Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, known to have been a favorite of Rothko's, at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in Sakura and in other venues throughout Japan.
Fanfare reviews The Rothko Room (Jan/Feb 2015)
January 7, 2015
SMALL
The Rothko Room: Journeys in
Silence. Visions of Childhood. A Glimpse of
Silence • Haskell
Small (pn) • MSR
1497 (52:40)
Haskell Small has appeared in the
pages of Fanfare, both
as pianist (I have a performance of Pictures
at an Exhibition by him in my
archive, although that disc apparently has
not been reviewed) and as composer. Since
I’ve found little biographical information
heretofore in these pages, a few words will
be in order. Small received his training at
the San Francisco Conservatory and
Carnegie-Mellon University, studying piano
with Leon Fleisher, William Masselos, Harry
Franklin, and Jeanne Behrend. His
composition studies were under the tutelage
of Roland Leich and Vincent Persichetti, and
he currently chairs the piano department of
the Washington Conservatory of Music. His
piano playing has taken him to major venues
in London, Paris, and Japan, and in the
autumn of 2013 he toured the U.S. with his
“Journeys in Silence” program.
Compositionally, he has received commissions
from the Washington Ballet, Three Rivers
Piano Competition, Georgetown Symphony, and
others, and for several years in the early
part of this century, he was
composer-in-residence with the Mount Vernon
Orchestra.
I suppose it is not even a “small”
surprise that this composer should have
written a good amount of music for his own
instrument, and the disc in hand presents
three fairly major works. The opening work,
The Rothko Room: Journeys in
Silence is, at a half hour,
the most substantial work on the CD. It
sounds nothing like Bartόk, Stravinsky,
Poulenc, or Shostakovich, a point I make
because of a review by former Fanfare
reviewer John Story who,
reviewing other piano works of this
composer, didn’t “hear a note that is not
underdigested Stravinsky and Bartók by way
of Poulenc and Shostakovich.” Either Small
has changed his style in these works, or
Story has quite a different idea of what
those composers sound like than I do.
Rothko is a one-movement
work that seeks to outline the life of the
noted Abstract Expressionist American
painter Mark Rothko. I don’t know enough
about Rothko’s life to give my opinion as to
how successful this attempted description
is, but Small has written an effective piece
that sustains interest throughout its
subdued, rather atonal, bell-like opening
through several contrasting sections which
contain momentary driving ostinatos, very
tonal chorale-like excursions, polytonal
block chords, and a return to the bell-like
motive that the composer here terms “bells
of doom.” Also portrayed are Rothko’s
struggle with mental illness, his final
burst of creativity (represented by the
polonaise form), and the blood draining from
him as his life slipped away (he committed
suicide by slashing his arms with razor
blades), the latter represented by the work
fading into nothing. While there are
certainly overtly tonal ideas to be heard in
the work, the better part of it utilizes
stark and severe tonality, much of which
borders on (but doesn’t really cross into)
atonality.
Haskell Small, the pianist, certainly
knows what to do with Haskell Small, the
composer. The challenge in performing a
piece such as Rothko
would seem to me to be the pacing of the
piece. Much of it is quite episodic, and the
space between the notes is as important as
the notes themselves. In lesser hands, the
piece would not cohere, but Small sees that
it does so quite splendidly.
Visions of Childhood is,
not surprisingly, inspired by Schumann’s Kinderszenen.
None of the movements (including such titles
as “Playing Rough,” “Feeling Lonely,” and
“Roller Coaster”) of this 10-movement suite
lasts more than three minutes, and most are
a good bit shorter. The tonal language of
this suite is similar to that of Rothko,
but the movements are self-contained
miniatures, each with its own “idea,” and do
not exhibit the episodic nature of the
preceding work. I enjoyed the occasional
humorous touches that the composer has
interwoven into this suite, including the
quintessential children’s “taunt” motive
(i.e., g-g-e-a-G-G) that shows up (albeit in
gentle fashion) in Feeling
Lonely. Small either has
children, or well remembers what it was like
to be a child in this work. The work would
make a good companion to its Schumann
inspiration, either in recital or on disc.
The CD closes with A
Glimpse of Silence, an
eight-minute opus that explores the concept
of silence through such devices as a music
box and a funeral march. The music box
doesn’t sound like any that you’ve ever
heard, but the effect is quite stunning,
given its piquant and ethereal harmonies.
Haskell Small’s music is well worth
exploring, and he gives it what sound to my
ears to be superlative performances, and the
recording engineer has well captured the
piano sound. Heartily recommended.
David
DeBoor Canfield
Issue 38:3 (Jan/Feb 2015) of Fanfare
Magazine
Haskell Small performs Mompou's Musical Callada in Germany and Spain in Fall 2014
December 11, 2014
Haskell Small's Journeys in Silence tour resumed this Fall with performances of Mompou's Musica Callada in Europe. Tour dates at calendar.
Haskell performed Musica Callada on Sunday, September 7 at The Lyceum, 201 South Washington Street in Alexandria, Virginia. This was part of the Lyceum Summer Chamber Music Series, sponsored by the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association - http://www.wmpamusic.org/lyceum-summer-chamber-series.html
He next performed the Catalan Spanish composer’s masterwork on Saturday, October 18 at Der Bergkirchengemeinde (The Mountain Church), Lehrstrasse 6 in Weisbaden and on Sunday, October 19 at The Wetzlar Cathedral, Domplatz 35578 in Wetzlar, Germany (http://www.dom-wetzlar.de/.
The next performances were on Wednesday, October 22 at Conservatorio Superior de Música
de Castilla y León, Calle del Lazarillo de Tormes in Salamanca (http://www.coscyl.com/en) and on Friday, October 24 at La Iglesia de los Padres Carmelitas (http://62.97.131.227/noticia/local/200604/el_centro_segoviano_en_madrid_pone_en_marcha_la_semana_de_san_frutos) in Madrid, Spain. Mr. Small also took part in an October 23 conference with students at Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castilla y León, discussing Musica Callada.
Haskell then performed Musica Callada on Saturday, October 25 at Nuestra Iglesia-Convento de San Juan de la Cruz (http://www.spain.info/es/que-quieres/arte/monumentos/segovia/monasterio_de_los_carmelitas_descalzos.html), Alameda de la Fuencisla in Segovia and Sunday, October 26 at Monasterio de Sant Pau del Camp, (http://webs.ono.com/santpaudelcamp/), Carrer de Sant Pau 101 in Barcelona, Spain.
See photos of Haskell rehearsing the music in the Monastery of San Juan de la Cruz, in Segovia, performing at Monasterio de Sant Pau del Camp in Barcelona and meeting with Berta Millia of The Mompou Foundation, also in Barcelona at https://www.facebook.com/haskell.small?fref=ts.
Germany’s Region Wetzlar website had a nice review of the October 19 concert. They said:
"Musica Callada" literally means something like"silent music" and figuratively "Voice of the Silence". Haskell Small explained at the
beginning of his introduction of "Musica Callada".The silence in "Musica Callada" should not be understood as the absence of sound, but rather silence as a place of inner peace.
Frederic Mompou had expressed that he was trying to get close to this inner voice, as a kind of state between life and death, in which there was no pulse. The composer had said that he was a taciturn man and his music contains few notes.
"Musica Callada" is a four-part work. In total there are 28 short pieces,
for which one needs patience. But you'll be rewarded by a very elaborate end, which will bring a return to the earth, said Small. The American pianist shared the four
books in two parts. During the break Jochen Stolla read poems of the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. On the seal itself is an image of Mompou.
Frederic Mompou grew up near a bell foundry. This, one would say, influenced the
piano sounds and one could hear the bell sounds from the music. Mompou‘s music was also search for the child in all of us. This could be heard well in the music that sometimes recalled children's songs.
Small has played worldwide in many major cities and was honored for his excellent technique. In addition to his work as a pianist Small also works as a composer and teacher. "Musica Callada" was also released as a CD (http://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1282).
Read the original German-language review at http://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/region-wetzlar_artikel,-Small-spielt-Hymnen-an-die-Stille-_arid,363010.html.
Spain's Raval Cultural had a nice listing about the October 26 performance at Barcelona's Monasterio de Sant Pau del Camp - http://ravalcultural.bcn.cat/ca/content/el-pianista-haskell-small-oferira-un-concert-sant-pau-del-camp.
Journeys in Silence 2014 tour resumes this Fall
October 15, 2014
Haskell Small's Journeys in
Silence tour resumes this Fall with performances of Mompou's Musica Callada in
Europe. Tour dates at calendar.
Houston, Texas Performance, April 11, 2014
April 3, 2014
April 11, 2014: Haskell Small performs at the Rothko
Chapel in Houston, Texas.
Click here
TEDMED Tops 1 Million Views
March 20, 2014
The video of Washington
Conservatory’s
TEDMED appearance, featuring Haskell Small tops 1 million
viewings! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9SdWBzy6Q
New CD: May 13, 2014
March 20, 2014
Advance copies of Haskell’s new CD,
The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence are now available on MSR Classics and Amazon. The CD will officially be released on May 13th.
Click here.
New York - March 28, 2014
March 20, 2014
Haskell Small returns to New York
on
March 28th with his acclaimed series Journeys
in Silence, featuring his own composition “The
Rothko
Room: Journeys in Silence,” and music
by Erik Satie and Alan Hovhaness.
Friday, March 28 – 8:00 PM at Christ & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 120 West 69th Street in Manhattan. For tickets,
click here.
Journeys in Silence
June 2, 2012
In the next few years, Haskell Small will be furthering his fascination
with music that is primarily quiet, spacious and of a mystical nature
with a series of concerts in a number of cities that will feature solo
and chamber works by himself and other composers. Performances have
already been set in Washington, New York, San Francisco and Columbia
(South Carolina). As a sample of Small's playing in this milieu,
click here to see his video on YouTube, which has already received over 40,000 viewings, of Arvo Pärt’s sublime Für Alina.
For more information on his
Journeys in Silence,
click here
May, 2012 Events
June 2, 2012
Pianist/composer Haskell Small was part of a chamber music concert on Wednesday, May 9 and also
presented a solo recital on Saturday, May 12.
The May 9 concert featured Mr. Small performing with cellist Drew Owen at Harmony Hall
Regional Center in Ft. Washington, Maryland, as part of the Afternoon Tea
concert series. They performed the Beethoven A Major Sonata together, and each performed several solos, including Small playing a sneak preview of his composition, Visions of Childhood.
The May 12 concert featured Mr. Small’s performance of his Visions of Childhood and works by J.S. Bach, Ordoñez and Schubert at Westmoreland Congregational Church in Bethesda,
Maryland. This concert was presented by Washington Conservatory of Music and was the final concert of their 2011-2012 series.
Haskell Small gave a recital on April 15 at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland. Repertoire was Bach’s G Major Partita, the 2nd movement of Schubert’s great B-flat Major Sonata, Mr. Small’s own composition Visions of Childhood and his short paraphrase of Gershwin’s An American in Paris.
The orchestral transcription of Haskell Small’s Scraps was performed by the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, Ulysses S. James, Music Director and Conductor, on February 12 at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, DC and on February 19 at Bishop Ireton High School in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Scraps is described by the composer as, “12 very little pieces of blues and jazz,” and is
an orchestral transcription of a 2006 work originally for solo piano, written for Dutch pianist Marcel Worms for his multi-national Blues Project. More about it at http://www.haskellsmall.com/compositions/2006/scraps-orchestral.
Other works on the February 12 and 19 concerts were Bob Mintzer’s Rhythm of the Americas (featuring the Washington Saxophone Quartet), Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D Minor and
Jonathan Blumhofer’s Diversions.
Haskell Small’s 12 Snippets for flute, clarinet, cello and piano was performed on September 18 as part of Think Small! at Copland House at Merestead in Mount Kisco,
New York.
The composer writes about the work, “Considering my name, I felt it was obligatory for me to respond to a call for scores by the "Association Decadanse" in Lunel, France for composers from around the world to each submit five to fifteen compositions, each of a maximum length of (sic) ten seconds. 12 Snippets was premiered in the Spring of 2000 as part of the Association Decadanse's "2000 for 2000" festival in southern France. More about the music at http://www.haskellsmall.com/compositions/1999/12-snippets.
Other composers on the program were Copland, Sebastian Currier, Schoenberg, and Webern. The event was sponsored by, in part, Music from Copland House.
Haskell Small's Artistic Blind Date
June 28, 2011
Haskell Small is taking part in a fascinating artistic collaboration. Washington DC's Source Festival has joined him with visual artist Lee Gainer and director/ puppeteer Cecilia Cackley to create an Artistic Blind Date.
Gainer writes, "We are tasked with the development and performance of a 30 - 40 minute play/experience/presentation about pretty much anything we want. We have a title to tease you with. Our performance will be called: Adjusting the Volume."
Performance dates are June 16 @ 7PM, June 19 @ 3PM, June 25 @ 6PM, and July 2 @ 3PM. ABD tickets are $10. More about the project, including a sound file of Haskell's music, the Artistic Blind Date project and the Source Festival itself at http://www.sourcedc.org/sourcefestival/performances.html.
Washington City Paper review
World Premiere of Haskell Small's The Rothko Room
June 28, 2011
Haskell Small's The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence, was given its World Premiere on Sunday, February 20 at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.
The composer writes about the new work, "(The artist Mark) Rothko said tragedy, ecstasy, doom are the only important things in art. I've tried this in music. In this piece, I'm trying to play so quietly on the piano as to be on the very cusp of audibility, but there are occasional outbursts paralleling Rothko's passionate nature (wild primeval, ritualistic dances). The work was influenced by Mompou's Musica Callada and the work of Arvo Part. It is in 1 continuous movement, a little under half an hour, in 4 parts, loosely paralelling the 4 paintings in the Phillips's Rothko Room, and reflecting the narrative of the painter's life journey. These parts are interwoven with an "ether" theme- floating in space. The piece also features a bell motif, at first very quiet, then later bells of doom." This continues the composer's exploration of quietude in music, which was featured on his acclaimed recording of Mompou's Musica Callada for MSR Classics.
Other works on Mr. Small's program were Erik Satie's Ogive No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, Alan Hovhaness' Suite for Piano, Op. 96 and Macedonian Mountain Dance and J.S. Bach's Partita in Bb Major, BWV 825.
Visit the Phillips at http://www.phillipscollection.org/homepage.aspx.
New Lullaby of War CD on Naxos
June 28, 2011
The internationally renowned Naxos label has issued a new CD of Haskell Small's Lullaby of War, Renoir's Feast and Three Etudes in Sound (catalog no 8.559649). The music is performed by pianist Soheil Nasseri and narrated by Martin Rayner.
Lullaby of War was commissioned by pianist Soheil Nasseri and was inspired by Picasso's great painting Guernica. The piece includes poetry by Joy Harjo, Paula Tatarunis, Stephen Crane, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Walt Whitman and Yvan Goll.
This is very powerful and effecting music, which when combined with the imagery, becomes something extraordinary.
Renoir's Feast was a commission by The Phillips Collection of Washington, D.C. to celebrate the return of their beloved Renoir masterpiece, Luncheon of the Boating Party.
Three Etudes in Sound explores the piano's 'color and sound control'.
More about the CD at http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559649.
More about Haskell's other CDs at http://www.haskellsmall.com/discography.
Haskell Small in the Concert Hall
October 15, 2010
Haskell Small has several upcoming performances you should know about.
October 18 through 22, Haskell will be presenting sections of his work in progress The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence in concert in Iceland. He will be traveling there with several colleagues to be part of a week of concerts of American music and masterclasses in Reykjavik and other cities around the island nation. His 6 Miniatures for bassoon and piano and Fugue and Postlude for flute, bassoon and piano will also be performed and Haskell will also participate in performances of music by Beth Anderson and Robert Ackerman.
Speaking of The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence, it will be given its formal World Premiere on February 20, 2011 at
The Phillips Collection museum in Washington, D.C.
New Lullaby of War CD on Naxos
October 15, 2010
The internationally renowned Naxos label has digitally issued a new CD of Haskell Small’s Lullaby of War, Renoir’s Feast and Three Etudes in Sound (catalog no 8.559649). Performed by pianist Soheil Nasseri and narrated by Martin Rayner, this disk brings together three of Haskell’s finest works. The recording is currently available exclusively online. The release of the physical CD is scheduled for May 2011.
More about it here. There are several videos to accompany the music on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/user/haskellsmall. The composer is on piano in these performances and the narration is by acclaimed actors Robin Weigert and Martin Rayner. This is very powerful and effecting music, which when combined with the imagery, becomes something extraordinary. More about Haskell’s other CDs online at
http://www.haskellsmall.com/discography.
New Publication
October 15, 2010
Peer Music has published Haskell’s solo piano masterwork Renoir’s Feast. The composer had previously recorded the work for the Museum Music label. More about it
here.
Renoir's Feast Published
December 23, 2009
Renoir's Feast for solo piano, Haskell Small's musical celebration of the French master's Luncheon of the Boating Party painting, has been published by Peermusic Classical. The piece is available in the U.S. through
Theodore Presser Company, and in Europe through
PeerMusic.
Two New Performances
December 23, 2009
Two more Haskell Small performance videos are available on YouTube.
Fur Alina by Estonia’s Arvo Part and
Song without (Good) Words by the early 20th Century American Charles Ives are the latest editions to Haskell’s growing and impressive catalog of performances and compositions online. You can see them on Haskell’s
YouTube channel.
Trio
December 23, 2009
Haskell Small’s
Trio for flute, cello and piano was presented as part of
Dialogues, a concert by the Third Millennium Ensemble this past October 25 at The Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, Maryland. The work was premiered by the Nanzetta Trio in 1984 and has been choreographed as "Shikar" by Lynn Cote for the Washington Ballet's 1994 Fall series. It was also the winner of the 1999 Marin Ballet Dance Score Competition.
Naxos
December 23, 2009
It’s almost here! Haskell Small’s much anticipated Naxos CD will be released in early 2010. This wonderful collection contains three of his piano works -
Lullaby of War,
Renoir’s Feast and
3 Etudes in Sound, recorded by pianist and strong advocate of Haskell’s music, Soheil Nasseri. Keep an eye on
naxos.com for release details.
Musica Callada; Journeys in Silence
December 23, 2009
Haskell’s MSR Classics recording of Federico Mompou’s Musica Callada has received some wonderful reviews from around the world. England’s Gramophone magazine wrote, “Small conveys the austere purity and concentration with an unhurried, timeless quality that seems just right... Throughout Small realises the microbially shifting expression... [Small] is in touch with Mompou's enigmatic, other-worldly music landscape..." and the London-based MusicWeb International wrote, “I am prepared to follow Haskell Small through these twenty-eight stations again, knowing that he probably is the living guide who knows this destination better than anyone…” Read more review excerpts, including a review of his Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C performance, and order the CD at http://www.msrcd.com/1282/1282.html.
Also in the realm of quiet music, Haskell is currently working on a new piece for Phillips’s Rothko Room - Journeys in Silence, which will be premiered in February of 2011.
Game of Go Updates
June 13, 2009
Haskell's composition
A Game of Go will be performed live at the
U.S. Go Congress in Fairfax VA on Aug. 1st; see the
Calendar for details. Additionally the
Game of Go videos have topped 7000 viewings.
Summer Calendar Additions
June 13, 2009
Haskell has an upcoming European tour in June; a concert at the Ratner Museum on June 14th, the Lyceum July 5th.
The WMPA performances on May 31st and June 7th of the orchestral version of “Scraps” have been rescheduled for next season.
For more information, see the
Calendar page.
Miscellaneous
June 12, 2009
Peer Music's publication of
Renoir’s Feast will be released this fall; new reviews of Haskell's
Musica Callada CD release have been added to the
reviews page, and can also be found in the American Record Guide May/June ‘09 issue.
A Game of Go Video
February 10, 2009
Haskell's 2-part video for his 1987 composition
A Game of Go has been published online. Visit the
videos section to watch both parts, and learn more and listen to an excerpt on the
composition page.
Lullaby of War Video Series
December 10, 2008
Haskell Small releases the
Lullaby of War video series.
Watch it here. Haskell's Youtube Channel can be found
here.
Now Available
December 9, 2008
Haskell Small's latest release,
Musica Callada, is now available on
Amazon.
Snippets, Spring 2008
March 13, 2008
The Spring 2008 issue of Haskell Small's newsletter
Snippets has
been published, with news of Haskell's composition
Lullaby of War.
The Washington Post reviews Musica Callada
December 1, 2007
"...as pianist Haskell Small showed in an unusual recital Sunday at the Phillips Collection, Mompou's music is worth attention... High marks to Small on courage alone, even higher for a riveting performance."
Read the full article.
Interview with Music & Vision
February 13, 2003
Read
Lisztian Sparkle, a marvelous interview with the composer in
England's Music & Vision daily classical music webmagazine.