Biography
Margaret Leng Tan has emerged as a commanding presence in the American avant-garde, a pianist whose visibility, technical command, and forward vision allow her to dissolve the usual concert conventions and establish direct rapport with audiences. She folds theater, choreography, and performance elements—including props such as the teapot central to Alvin Lucier’s Nothing Is Real—into her programs, pairing this theatrical flair with the exacting discipline instilled by her mentor, composer John Cage. The resulting synthesis has earned her wider recognition than most avant-garde musicians receive, with regular engagements at international festivals, frequent recordings for Mode and New Albion, and appearances on American public television as well as at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
Born in Singapore, Tan became the first woman awarded a doctorate by Juilliard, yet an early restlessness and a wish to investigate intersections between Asian and Western music led her to Cage. An intensive collaboration followed from 1981 until his death, during which she established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of his piano works, notably through the New Albion discs Daughters of the Lonesome Isle and The Perilous Night/Four Walls. After Cage died in 1992 she was selected as featured performer for a commemorative tribute at the 45th Venice Biennale.
Tan actively explores the musical capacities of unconventional instruments; her landmark 1997 album The Art of the Toy Piano, issued on Point Music/Universal Classics, brought the toy piano recognition as a serious instrument. She is the world’s only professional toy-piano virtuoso. Her curiosity subsequently extended to other toy instruments, reinforcing her guiding principle, “Poor tools require better skills,” as Marcel Duchamp once stated.
She seeks out music that tests and exceeds the conventional limits of both piano and toy instruments, commissioning works from composers including Somei Satoh, Tan Dun, Michael Nyman, Julia Wolfe, Toby Twining, and Ge Gan-Ru; she is likewise a favored interpreter for George Crumb. Tan’s authority on Cage has matured from that of skilled performer to textual scholar: she edited the fourth volume of his piano music for C. F. Peters and, in 2006, gave the premiere of the newly discovered 1944 composition Chess Pieces, which she also prepared for publication. Her Mode DVD of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes contains supplementary footage in which she reviews the original 1940s preparation materials. Photogenic and at ease on camera, Tan is the subject of Evans Chan’s documentary Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, first broadcast on the Discovery Channel in 2004 and scheduled for DVD release on Mode Records in 2007.
Born in Singapore, Tan became the first woman awarded a doctorate by Juilliard, yet an early restlessness and a wish to investigate intersections between Asian and Western music led her to Cage. An intensive collaboration followed from 1981 until his death, during which she established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of his piano works, notably through the New Albion discs Daughters of the Lonesome Isle and The Perilous Night/Four Walls. After Cage died in 1992 she was selected as featured performer for a commemorative tribute at the 45th Venice Biennale.
Tan actively explores the musical capacities of unconventional instruments; her landmark 1997 album The Art of the Toy Piano, issued on Point Music/Universal Classics, brought the toy piano recognition as a serious instrument. She is the world’s only professional toy-piano virtuoso. Her curiosity subsequently extended to other toy instruments, reinforcing her guiding principle, “Poor tools require better skills,” as Marcel Duchamp once stated.
She seeks out music that tests and exceeds the conventional limits of both piano and toy instruments, commissioning works from composers including Somei Satoh, Tan Dun, Michael Nyman, Julia Wolfe, Toby Twining, and Ge Gan-Ru; she is likewise a favored interpreter for George Crumb. Tan’s authority on Cage has matured from that of skilled performer to textual scholar: she edited the fourth volume of his piano music for C. F. Peters and, in 2006, gave the premiere of the newly discovered 1944 composition Chess Pieces, which she also prepared for publication. Her Mode DVD of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes contains supplementary footage in which she reviews the original 1940s preparation materials. Photogenic and at ease on camera, Tan is the subject of Evans Chan’s documentary Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, first broadcast on the Discovery Channel in 2004 and scheduled for DVD release on Mode Records in 2007.
Albums
