Greenwich House Music School (GHMS) is pleased to present a not to be missed all-Ligeti program by one of today’s most respected young pianists, Jenny Lin, on Thursday, March 31 at 8 p.m. Hailed as “brilliant” and “beautifully attentive” (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times), Lin will perform ten of György Ligeti’s Études pour piano (1985-2001), as well as his Continuum for Harpsichord (1968), and Musica ricercata (1951-3).

The concert is presented as part of the 25th anniversary season of North River Music – one of New York City’s first concert series devoted to new and experimental music and founded by Frank Wigglesworth in 1985. The concert will be followed by a reception. The concert will be held at Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street (between Bedford St. & 7th Ave. S), NYC. Tickets are $15 General Admission/$10 Students/Seniors – all tickets are payable at the door from 7:30pm. More information is available at (212) 242-4770 or at  www.greenwichhouse.org/programs/arts/music

Written between 1985 and 2001, Ligeti’s Études pour piano (Book I, 1985; Book II, 1988–94; Book III, 1995–2001) are considered by many as the best piano works of the last 50 years. Combining virtuoso technical problems with new ideas, they draw from such diverse sources as gamelan, one of his favorite jazz pianists, Thelonious Monk, African polyrhythms, Bartók, Conlon Nancarrow, and Bill Evans. Jenny Lin will perform Etudes No. 1,3,4,7,8,11,13,16,17, and 18.

Continuum for harpsichord (1968) was dedicated to the contemporary harpsichordist, Antoinette Vischer. Around the time of writing Continuum, Ligeti turned away from total chromaticism and began to concentrate on rhythm, and the work is described by the composer as “a series of sound impulses in rapid succession which create the impression of continuous sound.”

Musica ricercata (1951-1953) is a set of eleven pieces. Although the ricercata (or ricercar) is an established contrapuntal style (and the final movement of the work is in that form), Ligeti’s title can be interpreted literally as “researched music” or “sought music.” This work captures the essence of Ligeti’s search to construct his own compositional style, and as such foreshadows many of the more radical directions Ligeti would take in the future. Another important feature of the piece is that the composer confines himself to certain pitch classes in each movement, with each subsequent movement having exactly one more pitch class than the last.

Founded by Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch in 1902, Greenwich House is a nonprofit settlement house which offers cultural and educational programs, social and health services and opportunities for civic involvement to New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds – from any neighborhood. Greenwich House Music School, located in the historical West Village, provides a wide range of concerts and recitals as well as instructional classes and outreach in NYC’s public schools. With a faculty of about 50 instructors, its has 520 students ranging in ages from 3 years old to seniors — from beginner to advanced — in classes and private lessons, in piano, voice, violin and viola, cello, clarinet, flute, guitar, five-string banjo, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, harp and the Chinese qin, a seven-string plucked instrument. www.greenwichhouse.org

Funding for North River Music is provided, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.