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Sunday, February 25, 2024
— a “hybrid” event —
Sam Post
Piano
The Syncopated Piano
Join us for an evening of original music, along with new arrangements of J.S. Bach, Scott Joplin and James Scott. You’ll hear Sam Post combine the styles of these greats into his own, adding counterpoint to Joplin and syncopations to Bach. And then he’ll stretch the limits and possibilities of the piano with his pieces for right and left hand alone. Don’t miss this evening of piano in Sam’s trademark style!
Biography
Equally at home composing for orchestra, playing Bach at the piano, or crossing over into pop, Sam Post is forging a career across styles and between genres. The Washington Post has praised his abilities at the piano (“confident, sensitive…a pianist with drive and intelligence”), the Bay Area Reporter lauded his chamber symphony (“Post has created a breathtaking musical joy ride”), and luminaries such as Renée Fleming have commended his overall musicianship (“incredibly gifted”).
In 2016 Sam subbed as an accompanist to Yo-Yo Ma and Renee Fleming at the Kennedy Center. After hearing Sam play one of his compositions in rehearsal, Ma promptly recommended him to Michael Tilson Thomas at the San Francisco Symphony for a string quartet commission on Kazakh folk themes by late dombra player Karshyga Akhmedyarov, whose daughter Raushan plays in the symphony. After the premiere of the resulting “Sketches from Kazakhstan,” the Symphony commissioned him to turn it into a chamber symphony for their SoundBox concert series in December 2017. Baltimore Chamber Orchestra gave the East Coast premiere in February 2022.
Sam is the only five-time prizewinner of the Fidelio International Composition Competition for piano, and won two consecutive “New Rag” prizes at the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing contest in 2021 and 2022. He has received commissions from Washington Performing Arts, Levine Music, and the Palisades Virtuosi, is a four-time resident at the Avaloch Farms Music Institute, and has appeared on WETA’s “Front Row Washington” four times as well. He has composed hundreds of pieces for solo piano, including dozens for one-hand piano. More recently he re-wrote the entire Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 in “Syncopated Bach” style, and is recording it with his colleague Ralitza Patcheva.
In 2016 Sam co-founded Kassia Music and has written and performed dozens of new pieces with the group from duos to sextets. The group is currently the ensemble-in-residence at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, MD. Sam also collaborates extensively with pianists Ralitza Patcheva and Carlos Cesar Rodriguez, and is a musician-owner at Groupmuse. He is on the piano and composition faculty at Levine Music.
Find Sam on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc., or at sampostpiano.com.
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