Online | The Mazurka Reimagined: NEC Pianists Perform 12 World Premieres by NEC Composers

In the fall of 2019, Victor Rosenbaum's NEC piano students gave a studio recital of Chopin Mazurkas. “I though how wonderful it would be for them to play newly composed mazurkas, reimagined for our time, composed by students in the composition department,” says Rosenbaum. “We had done something similar with Preludes the year before. I thought it would be a valuable experience for my students to have the thrill of giving a world premiere performance and to work with a living composer.”

Rosenbaum worked with Composition department chair Michael Gandolfi to recruit NEC student composers, who completed their works in early February 2020. Despite the pandemic lockdown and geographic distance, the pianists learned their assigned pieces and had Zoom sessions with the composers and then recorded the works under sometimes less than ideal circumstances.

“Twelve new pieces were born and the result is this compilation of performances. Special thanks to Michael Gandolfi, chair of NEC Composition Department, Ian Wiese, and Robert Bui who greatly assisted in bringing this project to fruition, and please enjoy!” – Victor Rosenbaum, New England Conservatory Piano Department (1967-2020)