After a two-year delay, at 2 p.m. this Sunday, May 1, composer and Harvard resident Steve Peisch will finally get to hear a program of his original music performed at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts. Originally scheduled for April 2020, the concert was canceled as COVID-19 took hold across the area. The program, titled “Modern Music Gala,” consists of eight pieces of “modern music,” a style of classical music that developed during the 20th century influenced by composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky.
Steve Peisch.(Courtesy photo)
In an interview with the Press, Peisch said that while some modern music can be challenging to the average listener, he tries to compose pieces that are accessible to a broad audience. His pieces are often quite short, some only 30 seconds long, but each has a distinctive dramatic character.
Once he finds the emotional character of a piece, the music comes fairly easily, Peisch said. But there are drafts—lots and lots of them, sometimes filling an entire notebook. And it’s a long process because he lets time pass between revisions. He said he knows he’s done when he leaves the piece for a while, comes back, and can’t see anything to change.
Peisch himself is an accomplished musician in a variety of styles. He said he took violin lessons as a child and played violin all through high school, but classical music did not interest him as much as the rock music of the late 1960s. He played bass in a rock band, and later dropped out of college to play in a rhythm and blues band.
Classical music came back into focus for Peisch after he listened to Richard Strauss’ “Metamorphosen,” a highly expressive piece written in the 1940s with independent parts for 23 stringed instruments. He called it “extremely beautiful and emotionally demanding,” and it inspired him to return to the violin and to learn more about modern music. When he was 20, he was admitted to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he went on to get undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors, and to teach music theory for three years at the college.
He later taught music at Lawrence Academy for nearly 30 years and at several other schools, including Bromfield. During that time Peisch performed in three different professional bands, including The Steves, the blues band Blue Box Set, and the rhythm and blues band Time Traveler.
Now that he has retired from full-time teaching, Peisch has much more time to compose and record his works with musicians he has come to know on his long musical journey. Some of these musicians will be performing his works at this Sunday’s concert. Pianist David Pihl, who has performed at Carnegie Hall, collaborated with Peisch on several projects, and this summer Hundreds Records will release a CD of Pihl playing Peisch’s piano music. Other instrumentalists appearing in the concert include pianist Monica Tessitore, violinist Lynn Basila, and violoncellist Shay Rudolph.
Vocalists in the show include Harvard resident Suzanne Buell, who is a regular soloist in the Boston Pops Gospel Choir, as well as a lead singer in several bands in the greater Boston area, and soprano Maria Ferrante, who has performed in recitals and leading operatic roles all over the world. Jan Day Hadland, lead singer for the jazz quartet Just in Time, and Jupiter Montalvo, a student heading to Berklee College this fall, round out the vocal talent.
Sunday’s program includes solo and ensemble vocal pieces as well as instrumental selections for solo piano and piano trio. Peisch used poetry by Langston Hughes and Charles Simic for the text of two of the vocal works, and “Great New Day,” a gospel-style vocal piece, was inspired by the liberation movement in South Africa.
As for what’s next for Peisch, the New England Conservatory has offered him a full recital of his original modern music pieces this fall, to be held in Jordan Hall. In addition to continuing to compose, he hopes to begin teaching music part-time to elementary-school-aged children in Harvard and neighboring communities.
The May 1 concert will be held at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts at 14 North Road in Chelmsford. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for patrons age 5 and older, and proof of a booster is required for those 18 and older. Masks must be worn in the building. The program is supported in part by a grant from the Harvard Cultural Council and the Chelmsford Cultural Council. More information and tickets are available at chelmsfordarts.org.
