MP3 Steven Schoenberg - Three Days In May

An eloquent, lush, and flowing series of piano improvisations that take on new dimensions of subtlety and melodic depth, with a unique blend of classical, jazz and contemporary styles.

9 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, JAZZ: Free Jazz



Details:
Steven is an accomplished and dynamic musician/composer. His recent TV scores include the series PCWorldâs Digital Duo and the documentary Farmingville, both for PBS. Farmingville took home a Special Jury Award from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and opened the 2005 PBS series, POV. Steven has also scored numerous Emmy award-winning films for other PBS series including NOVA, Smithsonian World and People's Century. For childrenâs television, Steven has composed songs for Sesame Street and scored projects for ZOOM and the Children's Television Workshop. Other childrenâs related projects include composing and producing music for publishers Scholastic and Random House, and composing music for the award-winning book and CD, My Bodyworks, written by his wife, Jane Schoenberg.

Stevenâs talents cross into musical theater, with two works currently in development in New York City; original chamber music performed throughout the U.S. and Canada; and improvisational piano performances, including those on his acclaimed recordings Pianoworks and Three Days in May, now available on CD.

REVIEWS OF THREE DAYS IN MAY and PIANOWORKS:

âSteven Schoenbergâs "Three Days in May" is an eloquent, lush, and flowing series of improvisations that are spliced together to form sequential states of mind. He claims that the performances are completely spontaneous, but if thatâs so, they are within strict melodic and rhythmic frameworks. . .Schoenberg is not afraid to become rapturous, building up rippling cre3scendos and cascades of sound on âKeynote.â He can descend to emotionally manipulated pieces like âLullaby,â but he can also be brooding and pensive on âKyrie.â
Downbeat Magazine

âSteven Schoenbergâs kaleidoscopic piano speaks with a uniquely American voice; it possesses a vocabulary that spans the decade. His flowing compositions, laced with stride, folk, modern jazz and impressionistic styles, burst open into full-scale musical dioramas.â
Tom Regan, Prairie Public Radio

âSchoenberg performs spontaneously improvised works and yet each one has the polish, sophistication and technical mastery of a complex piece of music.â
David Sokol, Music Editor, Valley Advocate

I think Stevenâs music is some of the most incomparably beautiful music Iâve ever heard. When I listen, I am transported. . .to someplace very peaceful. If I were to be banished to an island and could take music, his would be among what Iâd choose. . .and if there were only two choices, Schoenberg would be one!
Lee Thornton, Senior Host, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, National Public Radio

âSchoenberg is a bright young composer, and his sparkling album âPianoworksâ is almost 45 minutes of Schoenbergâs solo improvisations, most of them from a concert he gave in Amherst College. Heâs a lyrical player with a gift for delicate interlocking melodies and extended single not runs high up the keyboard. . .On âGestureâ Schoenberg develops a pretty but slight opening theme and works it up, thickening the textures a bit, varying the dynamics, dotting it with quick runs, making it more elaborate but not pretentious â at the beginning youâd hardly have thought the little theme could have endured all of the weight. Of course itâs standard business, the thematic elaboration, but only the gifted players are able to do it well. And following âGesture,â Schoenberg diverges into a piece called âBlue Ragâ which isnât so much a rag as a dirty boogie-woogie with a rolling eight-to-the-bar rhythm and an uplifting bluesy after-hours feeling.â
Ray Murphy, Boston Globe