For the fourth year running, pianist/composer Amy Wurtz has celebrated Women’s History Month with livestream performances of music by women composers in each of the 31 days of March. While a couple of days early, she gave a closing recital at the CheckOut, on Sunday, March 29. She finished up with livestreams yesterday and today. Each day after the performance, she interviewed those composers who are still with us.
Sunday’s concert was also livestreamed, but the audio was not working in the first piece. The links in this review are to the daily livestreams.
Wurtz is from Chicago, but she studied music at the University of Minnesota. This year’s focus was on women composers with ties to the land of 10,000 lakes. She explained that, when planning this series, she had no idea of all the challenges that Minnesotans would be experiencing during these turbulent political times. She wrote, “I am glad to show the beauty, creativity, depth of expression and range of emotion, and overall talent and enthusiasm these composers from Minnesota and Chicago have.”
Sunday’s program was a reprise of works she’d performed during the month. She noted that this would not have been the program she herself would have designed. Instead, it reflected the requests her listeners had made. As she introduced each work, she also identified who had requested it.
Wurtz has a very dignified presence at the keyboard, where she exhibits poise and determination. Her tall, slender figure stays erect when she’s playing, bending only slightly at the hips. Her playing is not always precise, as she occasionally misses a note. Yet she knows herself well, and is proud of what she does when sitting on a piano bench.
She is also a tireless supporter and promoter of Chicago’s contemporary art music scene. She was involved in the Ear Taxi Festival last fall, the annual Thirsty Ears Street Festival, and Access Contemporary Music, which oversees the CheckOut, which was full on Sunday afternoon.
For each performance during the month, Wurtz wore different gowns and dresses that she borrowed from Classy Closet Consignment in Evanston. On Sunday, she was wearing a gold sequined gown.
The program featured lots of charming melodies, starting with the first piece, Prelude in la bémol majeur (A-flat Major) by Mari Esabel Valverde. Originally livestreamed on Day 5, it allowed Wurtz’ flowing technique to come out in the runs, with two adjacent notes struck together. She also adeptly handled the awkward tempos of one hand playing three beats while the other played two or four.
After resolving the audio challenges, she broke into two pieces based on Minnesota’s snowy weather. Asuka Kakitani’s The Night of the First Snow required constant use of the damper pedal and moderate tempo to create dark, misty vibes. It was originally livestreamed on Day 6, and on Day 7 Wynn-Anne Rossi’s three-part Winter Illuminations Suite continued similarly. Of that Suite, “Gliding on the Ice” was very melodic, and “North Wind Toccata” mixed in rhythms made from short notes rapidly played.
The next overall theme was Spring. I was especially pleased with Carol Barnett’s Thelma's Country Gardens, a jazzed-up version of a piece I played as a child. It was played on Day 22. This was followed by Victoria Malawey’s Strawberries, from Day 26, which had interesting counterpoint. Unfortunately, Wurtz did miss a few notes in both pieces.
One highlight was Jacelyn Hagen’s Variations on a Theme by Brahms, which was an interesting take on the third movement of Brahms’ third Symphony. Another highlight was Spectres by Alexandra Pierce, one of Wurtz’s teachers in Minnesota. This work required a “prepared piano,” for which Wurtz inserted erasers between the strings of several notes toward the middle of the keyboard. When played, those notes sounded like bongos. It was played on Day 11.
This was followed by one of the most dramatic works on Sunday’s program, Wurtz’s own I Can’t Breathe, which was originally livestreamed on Day 2. She wrote this following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The last two pieces were by Brazilian composer Chiquinha Gonzaga, whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries. Wurtz livestreamed it on Day 29, hours before she played the final concert at the CheckOut, In the concert she played Genéa and Corta-Jaca. The livestream from earlier in the day included an additional piece, Tango Brasilera.
Yesterday, Wurtz livestreamed her daughters Greta Bravo-Wurtz and Elsa Bravo-Wurtz performing with four hands Night of the Red Cat by Elizabeth Alexander, who was also on the feed and commented afterward. Greta also served as the video editor of the project.
The last livestream was today. Mo Ryan sang Lake Superior Songs by Linda Kachelmeier, who was also available for a post-performance interview. It was a great way to end an amazing month of broadcasts.
Overall, this was a wonderful endeavor and astonishing to pull off. It's one thing to perform 31 different programs in a single month, but it's additionally challenging to speak with the composers, most of whom were patched in from faraway places. Kudos to Amy Wurtz!
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