Mabel Kwan
Zaira Castillo
Josh Harlow
Paul Giallorenzo
Jeff Milam aka MT Coast
It's melodic and harmonic. It's percussive and smooth. It's old as hell, and sometimes, it's just furniture. We're talking about one of the most versatile instruments out there, the piano. Hosted by composer Sharon Udoh, a pianist of 40 years, the series "A Pianist and a Partner Perhaps" highlights 3 or 4 genre-spanning musicians for whom the piano has been a long-time love. Each pianist can choose to bring one additional musician in a duo offering, if they wish (thus, "a partner perhaps"), or, they can go at it solo. Piano players, lovers, and nerds everywhere, come join us as we celebrate this magnificent instrument!
At this third edition of PPP we have Zaira Castillo, Angelo Hart, Paul Giallorenzo w/ Jeff Milam, Angelo Hart, Josh Harlow, and hosted by the one and only Sharon Udoh. Sharon will perform a short set with pianist Mabel Kwan (on synthesizer!) to open the night!
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Artist Bios
Zaira Castillo is a dynamic and versatile pianist whose work encompasses contemporary classical music, electroacoustic performance, improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Deeply committed to working with living composers, she has commissioned and premiered numerous solo and chamber works, and is the pianist of Duo Riso.
She has performed at venues across and beyond Chicago, including Constellation, the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Elastic Arts, and Ciné Athens, as well as institutions such as Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, and Western Michigan University. Festival appearances include New Music Chicago’s Impromptu Festival, Spotlight on the Arts at UGA, Splice Festival, and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance.
Zaira is also a dedicated educator and a Steinway Teacher and Educational Partner. Wherever she lives, she actively engages with local communities through inclusive programming and outreach, creating meaningful and accessible musical experiences for audiences of all backgrounds.
Originally from Long Island, NY, Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, and producer using piano and electronics in a diverse range of contexts with a wide array of Chicago and international musicians in improvised, avant-jazz, experimental, and electro/acoustic music, performing regularly locally and throughout North America and Europe.
Giallorenzo’s work has been praised for its “inside-out” nature – his ability to push the boundaries of “conventional” jazz toward more freedom but also, on the other side, to bring a measure of structure to more avant-garde material. Writing in the online journal Point Of Departure, John Litweiler said, “His solos and aggressive duets are gems of after-Bop, after-Bley melody,” while AllAboutJazz.org lauded music that “smudges the lines between the tradition and the avant-garde.”
His current working projects as a (co)leader include the Paul Giallorenzo Trio, Hearts & Minds (with Jason Stein/Chad Taylor), and RedGreenBlue (with Ryan Packard, Ben LaMar Gay, and Charlie Kirchen). His work can be found on the Chicago-based Delmark Records and Austin-based Astral Spirits labels, as well as various other imprints including Leo Records (UK), Not Two Records (Poland), and 482 Music (NY).
Giallorenzo is the Artistic Director of the intermedia arts organization Homeroom and a co-founder and programmer of the music venue/art gallery Elastic Arts, producing hundreds of creative music concerts and art events in Chicago since 2001.
paulgiallorenzo.com
Josh Harlow is a pianist and composer in Chicago who expresses a creative and luminous energy. Josh’s influences include Thelonious Monk, Bjork, Lake Michigan, friends, and family. Current projects include the liberation music project Teiku, the toy instrument exploration microplastique, and the monthly Tangible Music series in Bridgeport. Josh has performed or recorded with Wadada Leo Smith, Vincent Davis, Jaribu Shahid, John Lindberg and many other inspirations of all generations and styles.
Jeff Milam aka MT Coast is a long time experimental electronics composer from Chicago by way of the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas. He uses electronic instruments to conjure his signature fusion of hiss, fuzz, drone and glitch in service of synthesising a fantastical biome where heavy air passes over the plateau and descends onto the cracked desert in fitful storms that smell like creosote and dry earth. His compositions can be melodic, but tend to have more in common with the skittering and swelling of living things than they do with hook or harmony. Coast has put out several recordings through the vibrant Chicago DIY scene and has collaborated with a number of artists over the years on site specific performances, but he is best known these days for his part in the experimental trio Garden Parties.