Bowerbird is pleased to present pianist Adam Tendler in a solo performance of works by Christian Wolff, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman, John Cage, and others.

Before David Tudor became renowned for his pioneering electronic compositions, he was celebrated as one of the most fearless and virtuosic interpreters of experimental piano music. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Tudor served as the primary champion of the New York School composers and works associated with the Fluxus movement, premiering scores that challenged every convention of notation, performance, and the relationship between composer and interpreter. His performances transformed indeterminate works and event scores into vivid sonic experiences, treating open-ended instructions not as puzzles to solve but as frameworks for spontaneous decision-making and physical engagement.

This concert honors Tudor’s legacy as a performer by presenting a diverse program of works he premiered during this formative period—pieces that blur the boundaries between composition and improvisation, notation and action, music and theater. Adam Tendler brings his own adventurous spirit and deep expertise in experimental repertoire to these historically significant works, continuing the tradition of radical interpretation that Tudor embodied.

This event is part of A VIEW FROM INSIDE: DAVID TUDOR AT 100, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21, 2026.

Major support for A View from Inside has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

A “daring pianist” praised for his “adventurousness and muscular skill” (The New York Times), 2026 Grammy-nominated artist Adam Tendler has been called “the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), “relentlessly adventurous” (Washington Post), a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times), an “intrepid… maverick pianist” (The New Yorker), and “one of contemporary classical music’s most intentional and daring pianists” (Seven Days). “If you’re a cutting-edge composer these days,” said CBS Sunday Morning’s Lee Cowan, “you want Adam to perform your pieces.” A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty states as part of a grassroots tour called America 88×50, and has since become one of classical music’s most recognized and celebrated artists, receiving Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, Sydney Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NJ Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, as well as on the main-stages of Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House, BAM, David Geffen Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Milan Fashion Week, and other leading series and stages worldwide. His Inheritances album is a 2026 GRAMMY® for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and a New York Times Critic Pick, which wrote, “You will be moved, profoundly and intensely.” Tendler has commissioned major works from composers ranging from Christian Wolff to Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange), Nico Muhly and Laurie Anderson. He is featured on Wild Up’s Grammy-nominated third volume of Julius Eastman’s music, and has also released albums of music by Franz Liszt, Robert Palmer, and of his own original work. He is the author of two books, a Yamaha Artist, and serves on the piano faculty at NYU.