Pianists celebrate Morton Feldman's 100th birthday with two marathon concerts

The experimental composer Morton Feldman would have turned 100 years old this week. To celebrate, more than a dozen pianists played two marathon, six-hour-long concerts of his work in Los Angeles.

Excerpts from NPR All Things Considered:

Conor Hanick, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, Vicki Ray and Tom Welsh, speaking with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED editor Christopher Intagliata.

"The experimental American composer Morton Feldman would have turned 100 years old this week. He was known for pieces that were quiet, spare, unsettling and sometimes hourslong. As The New York Times wrote in his obituary in 1987, quote, "his music bored and offended many," but, quote, "it enraptured others." And enraptured is how you could describe the collective of pianists and other musicians who gathered this week in Los Angeles to celebrate the composer's centennial. The collective is called Piano Spheres, and they celebrated in a way that might have pleased Morton Feldman himself - with two marathon free concerts, each more than six hours long."

"Often, when we are celebrating centennial years of artists, it's the opportunity to see how that art affects us now. .... I think there's a value in looking at Feldman's music now and realizing that he was engaged with a much different musical project than we are used to in 2026. He was asking us, and he continues to ask us, to slow down and listen more deeply, to feel things more deeply. And, you know, what a gift that he gave us that we can kind of return to year after year, and especially on this hundredth birthday." CONOR HANICK

Listen to full interview here: