Larson-Nilsen-Bosch

Overview

Brooklyn-based pianist Karl Larson performs works by Minneapolis composer Maura Bosch, with readings by the Los Angeles artist and author Anders Nilsen.

Karl Larson is a Brooklyn-based pianist and specialist in the music of our time. A devoted supporter of contemporary composers and their craft, Larson has built a career grounded in commissioning and long-term collaborations. He frequently performs in a variety of chamber music settings, most notably with the Anzû Quartet, a clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet focussed on cultivating a diverse new repertoire for their instrumentation. As a soloist, Larson is known for championing the works of his peers and the recent canon alike, often gravitating towards long-form, reflective works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through his work with Bearthoven, collaborations with a wide variety of chamber musicians, and his solo projects, Larson has helped to generate a large body of new work, resulting in world premiere performances of pieces by notable composers including David Lang, Sarah Hennies, Scott Wollschleger, and Michael Gordon.

Anders Nilsen is the artist and author of ten books including Big Questions, The End, Poetry is Useless and Tongues. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Kramer’s Ergot, Pitchfork, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His comics have been translated widely overseas and his painting and drawing have been exhibited internationally. Nilsen’s work has received three Ignatz awards as well as the Lynd Ward Prize for the Graphic Novel and Big Questions was listed as a New York Times Notable Book in 2011.

Maura Bosch is a composer and pianist. Her recent music for solo piano blurs the distinctions between classical, ambient and jazz. Bosch started out as a composer of classical music, focusing on operas and songs. But in 2020 she experienced a major shift in her life. After years of trying to ignore her mother’s Steinway M baby grand piano, which takes up most of the living room in her small south Minneapolis house, she finally became reconciled to it and started to compose music for it.