Title: Sedgeflowers for two pianos, with optional electronics
Commission: 2017
Completed: 2018
Instrumentation: piano
Premiere Location: 
Premiere Ensemble: Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Andrew Zhou of Ensemble HereNowHear
Notes:

John Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world’s few glass harmonica players. Described by critics and “enchanting” and “truly magical” (Boston and New York Classical Review, respectively), his music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures. Over the past several years, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world. He has received fellowships from Tanglewood, the MacDowell Colony, the Brush Creek Arts Foundation, the I-Park Artist’s Enclave, and the Millay Colony. Other notable distinctions include commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation and the American Opera Initiative, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the Brian Israel Prize, and a Presser Music Award. Funding from the Presser Foundation financed a ten-week residency in Tokyo in 2012 where he studied with Jo Kondo—a mentorship that made an indelible impression on his music. His current projects include a solo work for Grammy-winning flautist Molly Barth, an electroacoustic work for two pianos commissioned by the Fromm Foundation for Ensemble HereNowHear, and a work for Roomful of Teeth featuring the glass harmonica. As of January 2018, recordings of his works are available on Ravello, Innova, and Centaur record labels, with his debut portrait album scheduled for release on Albany Records later in 2018. He holds degrees from Eastman (PhD, MM) and Syracuse University (BM, summa cum laude). Since 2015, he is an assistant professor of composition and theory at the University of Notre Dame.