Four pianists, three puppeteers, and the complete piano four-hand works of Erik Satie converge at Boston Court Pasadena this weekend in a multimedia performance that pairs the French composer’s absurdist catalog with seven world-premiere commissions.
“The Satie Project,” presented by Piano Spheres and puppeteer David Gordezky, combines Satie’s four piano duet collections — “Aperçus désagréables,” “En habit de cheval,” “Trois petites pièces montées,” and “Trois morceaux en forme de poire” — with newly commissioned companion pieces interspersed throughout the program. The production features what Piano Spheres describes as “Dada, experimental puppetry, and avant garde clowning” woven into the musical performance.
The seven new works come from composers TJ Cole (“Slowly (The Life Cycle of a Fruit Salad)”), Mikhail Johnson (“Redite”), Jihyun Kim (“Morceaux 3”), Veronika Krausas (“(Une autre) Manière de commencement”), Celka Ojakangas (“En plus”), Nathan Schram (“More of the Same”), and Dale Trumbore (“Detached”). Each commission was written as a companion to one of the Satie four-hand movements.
The commissions are part of Piano Spheres’ “30 for 30” project, a season-long initiative of newly commissioned works launched to mark the organization’s 30th anniversary. Pianist Thomas Kotcheff, a Piano Spheres core artist, told I Care If You Listen in 2024 that the project “wanted the audience to not have the connection be over-explained.”
Pianists Nic Gerpe, Aron Kallay, Kotcheff, and Vicki Ray handle the keyboard duties. Gordezky leads the puppet and physical performance alongside Rachel Ho and John Morgenstern, with puppet and object design by Eli Presser.
The performance was originally planned for the 2024-25 season as a project of HOCKET, the piano duo of Kotcheff and Sarah Gibson, who conceived the Satie-centered format. Gibson died of colon cancer on July 14, 2024, at the age of 38. The performance was postponed following her death, according to I Care If You Listen. The project now reaches the stage in its rescheduled form.
Piano Spheres, founded in 1994 by pianist and scholar Leonard Stein, has presented more than 1,000 new works over three decades, according to the organization. The concert is supported in part by the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, according to the Boston Court event page.
Composer Veronika Krausas told I Care If You Listen she “was originally imagining a slightly choreographed/theatrical work where the pianists move around each other, switching positions.”
The Satie Project, Saturday, May 30, 2026, 8 p.m., and Sunday, May 31, 2026, 2 p.m. Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena. Free parking available in the lot behind the building. For more, call (626) 683-6801 or visit bostoncourtpasadena.org/
