Jenny Q Chai Presents: Acqua Alta (High Water)

Piano concert focusing on global warming and its effects on the Earth’s oceans.


On Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 7:00 pm, Shanghai/Paris-based pianist Jenny Q Chai will be performing Acqua Alta (High Water) at New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY. Seated tickets are $20 advance, $25 day of show. Standing tickets are $15 advance, $20 day of show, and are available for purchase at lpr.com or in person at the box office.

Jenny Q Chai‘s Acqua Alta (High Water) is a program which focuses on global warming and its effects on the Earth’s oceans. The music on this program showcases the piano’s full range of expression, from exquisite nuance to bold gesture, as well as a wide range of musical understandings of water dating from both before and after the emergence of global climate change.

The program also includes sound and video installations based on global warming data curated by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories scientist Dr. Ian Fenty. The effect of global warming on water has been Fenty’s field of specialization for years. In addition, some pieces on the program are paired with the digital paintings of artist Relja Penezic, all of which are related to water. A narrative unfolds over the course of the performance, at first showing the tranquility of water and of humanity living harmoniously with it, then gradually showing a breakdown of that harmony in an increasingly industrialized world, and a troubling of the delicate balance that oceanic life requires.

Works to be performed during the “Acqua Alta (High Water)”  program include:

Victoria Jordanova, Loveling

Marco Stroppa, Tangata Manu from Miniature Estrose, Book I

Claude Debussy, La cathédrale engloutie

Theodore Wiprud, Face of the Deep*

Orlando Gibbons, Allemande (Italian Ground)

Franz Liszt, La lugubre gondola

Milica Paranosic, Bubble (in trouble)

György Kurtág, Shadow-play

Marco Stroppa, Ninnananna from Miniature Estrose, Book I

György Ligeti, Musica Ricercata Nos. 1 and 7

Cole Ingraham, Entropy (3 parts)*

*commissioned for this program

“I am lucky to know so many of the best living and 20th century composers in person or in a very personal way” – Jenny Q Chai

About Jenny Q Chai

An artist of singular vision, pianist Jenny Q Chai is widely renowned for her ability to illuminate musical connections throughout the centuries. With razor-sharp intention, Chai integrates her prodigy’s training with personal fascinations in the latest in live electronics, artificial intelligence, and environmental research, creating layered multimedia programs and events which explore and unite elements of science, nature, and art. Also of note, Ms. Chai designs all her performance gowns and some jewelry, in order to present a more united performance aesthetic, akin to the idea of Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk. Ms. Chai has performed across the globe, headlining the most impressive venues from Carnegie Hall in New York City to the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing, China.

“Jenny Q Chai, who has studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, is following the more eclectic path…” The New York Times.

About Dr. Ian Fenty

Dr. Ian Fenty received his Ph.D. in Climate Physics and Chemistry from MIT where he studied how the year-to-year variability of the oceans affects the formation and extent of Arctic sea ice. He joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow to research the connection between a warming ocean and the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and sea level rise. As part of this research, Dr. Fenty collaborates with JPL oceanographers, glaciologists, and other scientists to reconstruct the circulation of Earth’s high-latitude oceans over the past two decades using a combination of numerical climate models and satellite and field observations.

About Relja Penezic

Relja Penezic is a painter, video artist, printmaker, photographer, and a filmmaker. His work is a multimedia blend that combines technology and painting, performance and video, art and craft. Penezic exhibits his work internationally and his short films are regularly shown at film festivals throughout the world. Relja Penezic is a cofounder of ARTaVIVA, company/curatorial project dedicated to promotion of audio/video art as a permanent installation medium. From 2007 his work is regularly shown on Souvenirs from Earth, the first Cable TV station broadcasting a 24/7 program of Film and Video art. In addition to an international career as an artist he served as a Creative Director for ID8, Los Angeles based branding agency, an Art Director and a Designer for Jump Ship Studios, San Francisco, and a Designer/Visual Effects Artist for Fleet Street Pictures of San Francisco. Relja Penezic was also a Master Printmaker for John Nichols Printmakers of New York specializing in silk-screen and lithography limited editions. He was a lecturer at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Princeton University School of Architecture, Haverford College, and Bowling Green State University.