Piano Vectors
for 6 pianos: a world premiere by John King

Laura Barger
Taka Kigawa
Joseph Kubera
Jenny Lin
Tania Tachkova
Ning Yu

A major work of 80 minutes in duration for our 30,000 square foot main exhibition space, Piano Vectors for 6 pianos filled Knockdown with rich textures of sound. Each solo pianist was seated at a piano at a chance-determined location. This composition was begun with a system of organizing time, and this system in turn generated all subsequent musical and spatial elements. Imagine the 6 pianists traveling through space and time, each at their own rate, speeding up or stretching time in chance-determined and improvised ways. Piano Vectors explores and summarizes King’s ideas on the organization of time and space as the primary focus of sound.