FEARLESS is a concert of piano transcriptions performed by three exceptional Steinway Artists, Meral Guneyman, Christopher O'Riley, and Jed Distler. The Program will consist of works by David Bowie, Philip Glass, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, and Thelonius Monk.
The art of David Bowie, in pianist and Steinway Artist Meral Guneyman's heart and mind, evolved over the last four years from transcribing his lesser-known songs to studying in-depth the man, the artist, and his private and public persona. The result has been a compilation of Bowie's as well as his favorite classical and contemporary composers/works. A two-piano score of "Some Are", the second movement of the Low Symphony by Phillip Glass was realized by Guneyman, based on the Bowie song by the same title from the 1977 album "Low". Guneyman will be performing this transcription with composer and pianist Jed Distler. Stravinsky's monumental and groundbreaking Rite of Spring will be performed by Meral Guneyman and Christopher O'Riley. Guneyman will continue with her solo transcriptions of Richard Strauss' two of the last four songs, "September", and "Fruehling", followed by a selection of the most lyrical Bowie's songs rendered in improvisatory and Chopinesque nature. The concert will close with a collection of timeless standards of the Jazz legend Theolonius Monk, transcribed for two pianos and performed by the inimitable Jed Distler with Meral Guneyman. The fact that all this music is so close to Guneyman's heart is as serendipitous as her shared birthday with Bowie.
