Artists in residence

INTERVIEW

Why did you turn to piano playing?
 

“I’ve been playing piano since I was a child. Growing up, I heard recordings of John Coltrane and Duke Ellington at home, two artists who have an enduring influence on my musical imagination. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was fortunate to encounter great teachers and a like-minded peer group as my interest in jazz music flourished.”

Can you tell us a few words about the collaborative project created with two other residents at the Cité internationale des arts, Dominik Zietlow and Néféli Papadimouli?
 

“Being both confined in Paris early 2021 and away from my music community in New York, most of my practice has been directed towards playing solo piano. I’ve been revisiting my older compositions and writing new music for this setting throughout much of the residency. 

This composition (to discover HERE) is the 5th part of my Altadena Suite, which I originally released in 2016 on a recording with my sextet ft.Albert Heath.

Dominik and Néféli and I first connected through overlapping musical passions. They are both so talented and I am glad we had the opportunity to create something together.”

An anecdote about your residency at the Cité internationale des arts?
 

“Playing piano has always been my first passion in life, but practicing piano sometimes feels like the loneliest thing one can do! Being integrated in a diverse and electric community here at Cité has opened me to new collaborative possibilities. Some of the most exciting ideas are traded causally and informally through the community environment found here at Cité, which reinforces my feelings that, though performance and practice may take the shape of a “solo project”, the work cannot happen in a vacuum; though the pandemic has challenged this in every sense. “

BIOGRAPHIE

Richard Sears is a Brooklyn based (USA) pianist and composer. 

He has performed with the Billy Hart Quartet (ft. Mark Turner and Ben Street), the Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, Eric Revis, Andrew Cyrille, Joshua Redman and other jazz artists.

In 2018, Richard Sears was commissioned by The Shed (NYC) to create Should I Lose You, a concerto for improvised piano and electronic score, conceived in collaboration with composer and sound artist Ethan Braun. Should I Lose You premiered in 2019 for The Shed’s inaugural Open Call program. The performance included video by filmmaker Clara Cullen, and was staged by architect and designer, Yael Ginosaur.

Richard Sears’s 2016 release Altadena features the legendary drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath performing with his sextet. The album earned 4 stars in DownBeat Magazine, and was named “one of the best releases of 2016” by AllAboutJazz.com. Altadena was commissioned by the Los Angeles Jazz Society (2013), with additional support from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund (2015).

He is a current grantee of the American Composers Forum, for which he will be scoring an original libretto by poet and art historian Prajna Desai. The piece, Confetti Palace, is an opera for two voices and chamber ensemble, set to premier in 2021.