Hi,
I’m in the 2nd year of my masters degree in composition at Trinity Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Currently, I’m working on a piece for two pianos, which is something I have not done before but I met a pianist who mentioned that they would be interested in performing a modern piano piece for two pianos with another student and I thought it would be a challenge.
It’s influenced by latin music and as a result it has a lot of syncopation and is rhythmically driven. As well as playing piano I also play congas, since 2008, so I have spent a lot of time listening to cuban music in particular. However the piece is not meant to be any traditional Cuban in style, it has a number of irregular time signatures such as 7/4 and 5/4 and some of the contemporary classical influences will hopefully come through. My listening has included: Anton Arensky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Shostakovich and Roberto Sierra. I have just finished the 2nd movement and about to start work on the 3rd, so I had better sign off!!
Check out this video featuring Giovanni Hidalgo and Edmar Castañeda and my Spotify playlist of music for two pianos until my next blog post: