Who are the most innovative composers in New York right now?  Ask visionary pianist Kathleen Supove, who curates the new music series at the Flea Theater, in New York.

Crowned “the downtown piano queen” by The New Yorker, Supove is known for her massively intelligent and passionate command of both modern/contemporary piano repertoire and the recital form itself—often infusing her performances with savvy theatrics to charge them (and the audience) with new energy.  “Through her Exploding Piano series, developed and expanded at The Flea,” says the theater’s website, Supove “has commissioned pioneering works of concert theater and music for piano with electronics and multimedia by a Who’s Who of today’s most exciting composers.”

On Monday, May 4, Supove and the Flea present two of what Supove calls New York's “most daring” composers in the finale of this season’s Exploding Piano series: multitalented percussionist Michael Evans, collaborating with video artist Naval Cassidy and employing surveillance cameras to create a work called Trouble's a Brewin’; and Akemi Naito, who presents The Woman in the Dunes, a multimedia piece based on the novel by Kobo Abe.

“I've always found the work of Michael Evans to be really fresh,” says Supove, whose latest, critically-acclaimed solo CD, Infusion, is on the Koch International Classics label and features works for piano and electronics by American composers Carolyn Yarnell, Marti Epstein, Randall Woolf, and Elaine Kaplinsky. “Not only is he an expert percussionist, but he has a truly authentic sense of play, an almost naive, ‘amateur’ quality (and I mean this in the best sense!) to his performances and concepts. I love the idea of surveillance in a piece, as it's the ultimate breaking down of the fourth wall!

“Akemi Naito's work is an ambitious one,” continues Supove, “ - the subject being the Kobo Abe novel, and a blending of Noh Theater, video, and music. I'm excited to see exactly how, through her elegant music, she will gently break down all the barriers between disciplines and blanket the space of The Flea Theater!”

The Flea Theater is at 41 White Street (between Church and Broadway: 3 blocks below Canal), in New York.  Admission to this event is free.  Visit http://www.theflea.org for more details.

  Florestan