No, I haven’t started drinking, but I’ve been getting soused on barrels of new piano music. New York’s classical music station WQXR has an internet radio stream called Q2, and mainly features continuous music, mostly with an edgy 20th/21st century bent. Each weekday at 11:00 Am and 11:00 PM Q2 presents a keyboard show entitled Hammered!, and I’m proud to be their composer/pianist/keyboard maven in residence throughout October.

I’ve curated and programmed all of the month’s shows, plus four Monday segments (October 4, 11, 18 and 25) where I actually host, make announcements, and offer commentaries. For me, this is a dream come true, since I’ve wanted to host a radio show ever since I was a little boy. It’s been quite a learning curve preparing for this residency, yet I’ve loved every minute of it, and I hope you’ll enjoy. To listen and to get full program information, click on WQXR. However, I thought I’d give readers a taste of what to expect.
 
October 4th was about transformation and repetition, and featured unlikely yet logical musical bedfellows such as Jerome Kitzke and J.S. Bach, or Jascha Narveson and York Bowen. On October 11th, I pay homage to my wildly diverse mentors – people like Stanley Cowell, Bill Evans, Robert Helps and Frederic Rzewski. More stylistic boundary-blurring happens on October 18th when I explore “The Pulse That Pulls You In.” Lastly, on October 25th I attempt to show how piano composers remix and deconstruct just as well as DJs. We’ll hear Liszt take on Mozart, Yvar Mikhashoff revamp Debussy, Glenn Gould riding the waves of Ravel’s La Valse, plus my own slicing and dicing of 1967’s most iconic album in a virtuoso tour-de-force for speaking pianist “Assault on Pepper”.

Eclectic mixing and matching also define my non-hosted shows on Tuesday through Friday. Look out for a few rarities, such as Peter Serkin’s brisk, jazzy Beethoven “Hammerklavier” Sonata and John McGuire’s gorgeously undulating “48 Variations for Two Pianos.” Of course I’ll sneak in previews from my upcoming Musical Concepts CD “Meditate With The Masters,” and I’ll give a full hour over to the Exploding Piano with Kathleen Supové.
 
Let me know what you think about the shows, and happy listening!