100th Anniversary of the Birth of Composer Morton Feldman

To mark the 100th anniversary of American composer Morton Feldmann’s birth, Ian Wilson will perform his seventy-minute piano work from 1985, “For Bunita Marcus”. The performance will be followed by a discussion about the piece itself, as well as Feldman’s oeuvre.

American composer Morton Feldman was born on January 12, 1926, in New York City. Avoiding traditional musical education, he studied composition privately. He was working in his family’s clothing business in New York City until 1973, when he became a professor of composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he taught until his death in 1987.

Morton Feldman
For Bunita Marcus (1985)

Biography:
Ian Wilson is a composer, pianist, conductor, and curator originally from Northern Ireland. He has composed over 250 works in many different genres which have been performed and broadcast on six continents. As a pianist Ian has given the world premiere performances of pieces written specially for him by composers such as Colin Riley, Stephen Gardner, Deirdre McKay and David Morris; also the territorial premieres of works by Morton Feldman, Luciano Berio, Arvo Pärt, Michael Finnissy, Judith Weir, Milan Mihajlović and Howard Skempton.
He has conducted many choirs, ensembles and orchestras including Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ulster Orchestra, Ficino Ensemble, Chamber Choir Ireland, and Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra.
Ian is a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s national association of creative artists, and his music is published by G. Ricordi & Co. Ltd and Universal Edition.
Visit: www.ianwilson.ie

Few word by Ian Wilson about the piece For Bunita Marcus:
In this late-period masterpiece, Morton Feldman crafts a 70-minute landscape where sound seems to hover just above silence. The piano’s gestures—spare, repeated, and subtly varied—drift like shifting patterns in woven fabric, an art form Feldman greatly admired. Rather than building towards climax, the music unfolds as a long, gently breathing continuum, inviting listeners into a state where time feels softly elastic. Dedicated to his close friend and collaborator Bunita Marcus, the piece becomes an intimate meditation: a fragile thread of thought traced with extraordinary patience and clarity.