This Wednesday and Thursday, Winnipeg’s GroundSwell will be featuring a true Canadian piano phenom, pianist Corey Hamm.
For those unfamiliar with Corey Hamm, he is currently on faculty at University of British Columbia’s School of Music where he teaches piano and chamber music. He has commissioned more than 400 works for the piano, and has performed and taught all over the world, championing works by composers such as Henri Dutilleux, and Frederic Rzewski.
While in Winnipeg he will be playing two concerts, the first, on Wednesday, March 6th at 12:30 at the University of Manitoba’s Desaultes Faculty of Music in Eva Clare Hall.
The second concert will take place on Thursday, March 7th at 7:30 at the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The concert is called The People United/El Pueblo Unido. Aside from Hamm, the concert will also feature the fantastic Latin American group from Winnipeg Papa Mambo.
The two concerts will consist of two completely different programs of virtuosic music for the piano that are sure to keep audiences engaged and enthralled.
Gordon Fitzell, is a Professor of Composition at the University of Manitoba’s Desaultels Faculty of music, he is also the curator for these two concerts. His friendship with Hamm goes back many years. As he explains, “It goes way back to Edmonton, Alberta, where we were both students at the School of Music there…at that point in his life he [Hamm] was part of what was called the “Hammerhead Consort” …they commissioned all sorts of composes, and recorded, and played around quite a bit in different concert halls etc…that was my first experience meeting Corey.”
Concert on March 6th
The Concert on Wednesday, March 6th at 12:30 at the University of Manitoba’s Desaultes Faculty of Music in Eva Clare Hall will feature new works written for Hamm. “A bunch of composers over the pandemic wrote me piano pieces, and so that was a privilege I’m really thankful for that,” says Hamm. He then chose some of his favorites from the collection , as well as a piece by the composer Ronn Yididia that he thought would fit well in the program.
One of the other big highlights of the concert is that Hamm will be giving the world premiere performance of a piece by up-and-coming Canadian composer Carly Toperosky Splett who in 2022 graduated from McGill with a Masters in Composition. Splett is GroundSwell’s 2023 winner of their Winner of National Emerging Composers Competition.
Concert on March 7th
On Thursday March 7th at 7:30 at the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. GroundSwell will be presenting a concert called The People United/El Pueblo Unido.
The concert has two main elements. The first part of the concert will feature the remarkable Winnipeg band Papa Mambo. Known for their high energy, and marvelous performances of Latin-American music, the group has proven to be the gold standard when it comes to Latin bands.
A trio from the group will be performing a musical set that will feature protest songs from Latin America, ending with the powerful and moving song El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido (The People United Will Never Be Defeated) written by Chilean singer-songwriter Sergio Ortega shortly before the Augusto Pinnochet coup that happened in Chile in 1973. Incidentally, the leader of Papa Mambo, Rodrigo Muñoz was born in Chile.
Following Papa Mambo’s performance, the second half of the concert will feature Corey Hamm playing American composer Frederic Rzewski’s monumental, and supremely virtuosic set of 36 variations based on the song The People United Will Never Be Defeated.
Corey Hamm’s relationship with the Rzewski variations
This is a piece that takes about an hour to perform, and Hamm has performed it close to 80 times. It is also a piece that he has lived with and studied for a long time; since he was a teenager. The piece has become part of psyche and pianistic DNA. As Hamm explains “I always dreamed of playing this piece since I first heard it on recording… Ursula Oppens fantastic first recording…back when I was fourteen. I listened to it and I was immediately sold. I thought it was an incredible piece…not only the super-catchy wonderful tune, but the amazing set of variations that Rzewski built…epic variations that he built on that.”
Hamm would pick away at the easier variations when he was in his teens, and as his skill at the piano become more advanced he began tackling the more challenging variations. “It became closer and closer...within reach [as he got older]…but I didn’t really learn the whole thing until I was a Professor at UBC.” Even after learning the remarkably difficult piece Hamm makes it clear that it was only after about the twentieth time performing them that he really felt comfortable.
Rzewski’s 36 Variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated is really a gigantic monolith of a piece. It runs the gamut from tonal to Stockhausen-esque variations, and is a true endurance test for the pianist. What is really magnificent is that the theme is always present no matter what Rzewski demands of the pianist.
Structure and Symbolism in the Variations
Structurally the variations are clearly organized into six sets of six variations (6x6 equals 36). With the sixth variation recapping what was heard in the previous five. And the final six variations recapping each complete set that was heard previously.
The symbolism and significance of the variations is also very important. The first five variations in each one of the sets represents the people, with the sixth variation bringing the people together. Also, as Hamm states, “The first five variations also represent the fingers of the hand and brought together [by the sixth variation] it represents the fist…which is a true revolutionary image.”
Hamm has recorded the Rzewski 36 Variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated on the Redshift record label. He has truly mastered this Mount Everest of a work. The performance on Thursday will be truly remarkable and memorable…truly unforgettable.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oot6rrfmgua4yqc/TK431%20Rzewski%20Liner%20Notes.pdf?e=1&dl=0
Hamm’s performances on Wednesday, March 6th at 12:30 at the University of Manitoba’s Desaultes Faculty of Music in Eva Clare Hall and his performance alongside Papa Mambo on Thursday March 7th at 7:30 at the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at the Winnipeg Art Gallery are both once in a lifetime events.
For more details visit GroundSwell’s website.
