Steve’s Inspirations (Part I)

Steve Mackey says that his idea for a piano concerto began with music that is two centuries old.  “I like the transparency in Mozart’s late piano concertos,” he said.  “And I love the clarity and polyphony in Orli’s playing.  My music focuses on that: strands of rhythm and strands of color.”

Steve is also duly impressed with Orli’s style of a particular kind of mixed articulation, playing a jaunty melody line while simultaneously carrying out a smoothly legato background.  “That’s going to be important in the piece I write for her,” he says.