Mara Gearman and Alexander Bishop talk about their upcoming recital

Composer Alexander Bishop’s music came into wider awareness last spring when SSO violist Mara Gearman played two of his works as part of Paul Taub’s May Day, May Day festival. Gearman was looking for a couple of new pieces of music to play for the festival, and Bishop was seeking a violist to to play two short pieces he wrote for Viola. Bishop and Gearman are taking their partnership one step further on December 1st with a an all Bishop recital featuring two brand new works: a viola sonata and a string quartet. Composer and violist sat down with me last Saturday to talk about the recital, their creative partnership, and even the possibility of new Bishop compositions for the viola (a viola concerto perhaps?)

For your Thanksgiving and Black Friday viewing pleasure!

Gearman and Bishop Interview from gatheringnote on Vimeo.

And for your viewing and listening pleasure here are Mara Gearman’s performances of Bishop’s music from May Day, May Day.

Mara Gearman plays music by Alexander Bishop from Zach Carstensen on Vimeo.

The recital is 8:00 pm December 1, 2010 at Cornish’s Poncho Recital Hall on Capitol Hill.