When Ron Blessinger called me back in May to be part of the Portland Social Distance Ensemble, it all sounded like magic to me. I feel most at home musically in two places: when I teach, and when I play chamber music. Like millions of teachers around the world, COVID-19 had morphed my teaching into an internet ‘solitary’ chamber. Don’t get me wrong… I feel blessed by technology and the ability to continue teaching throughout these difficult times. It has been like a ray of sunshine. But playing music with other people? Was that even possible? I was game! This is now my second concert within this wild experiment that is making music live online with this revolutionary technology. And now I get to play with my musical partner Momoko. Momoko and I have been making music together as a piano duo since 2014, sharing a piano and a dream of bringing a little piece of ourselves to people through our music. This week’s program feels like a representation of who we are: a little classical, a little contemporary and a whole lot of Latin-American (and hopefully a lot of fun and entertainment as well).

We start with everyone’s favorite classical music composer, the magnificent Johann Sebastian Bach, in an arrangement of his aria Erbarme Dich, mein Gott from St. Matthew’s Passion. Considered by many as one of the greatest masterpieces of classical sacred choral music, this gorgeous aria (for alto with a violin obligato) depicts the scene when Peter repents after having denied knowing Jesus three times and feeling deep remorse: “Have mercy my God.”

Moving forward a couple of centuries, I had the incredible luck of hearing Italian composer/performer Giovanni Sollima play live in 1999 at the Knitting Factory in NYC, and it was probably the single best live concert I’ve ever seen. Sollima embodies classical virtuosity and composes in a post-minimalist style that combines folk/rock and electronic elements. To further explore timbre, we add our own spin to three of his Subsongs, with toy pianos and more inside-the-piano elements. Our long-time friend, violinist and 45^th Parallel Universe executive director Ron Blessinger, was game to join us in this musical exploration, adding percussion elements to the piece.

Latin-American music is deep to our roots. I am a native of Puerto Rico, and Momoko was raised the first seven years of her young life in El Salvador. You will hear a gorgeous romantic waltz by the Brazilian composer Zequinha de Abreu, Branca (a popular female name). Zequinha de Abreu is considered one of the most prominent composers of folkloric Brazilian music, his most famous composition being Tico-Tico no Fubá. Francisco Mignone, another prominent Brazilian composer of the 20th century, composed a complimentary second piano part to this beautiful waltz. To end we present Escuálo (“Shark”) by the revolutionary Nuevo Tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Ron will join in the fun, adding some surprising elements to this two-piano arrangement by Kyoko Yamamoto (a former student of Momoko’s piano-teaching mother!). We hope you enjoy our musical offering.

Maria Garcia