Dancing in the Makrokosmos

Percussion and piano converge in a vividly textured evening of 20th- and 21st-century chamber music at UM Gusman Concert Hall.

Part of the Frost Music Live 2025–2026 Signature Series, Dancing in the Makrokosmos: Chamber Music Series features guest pianists Gloria Chien and Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė alongside percussionists Ji Hye Jung and Svet Stoyanov. The program opens with dynamic works for percussion, including Takemitsu’s atmospheric Rain Tree and Viñao’s rhythm-driven Dance Groove Drifting, followed by Bach chorales reimagined by György Kurtág and Ravel’s sweeping La Valse for piano four hands.

The evening culminates in George Crumb’s rarely performed Makrokosmos III (Music for a Summer Evening), an expansive soundscape for amplified piano and percussion that blends mysticism, theatricality and extended techniques into one of the composer’s most evocative works.