Mutant Pianos is a celebration of electronic music by Long Island composers Herb Deutsch, the coinventor with Robert Moog of the Moog Synthesizer, and George Cork Maul, an East End composer with modern synthesizers. Part of an ongoing dialogue and improvisation between Deutsch and Maul, Mutant Pianos combines live musical performance, informal lecture, and hands-on experience. The concert will also include a "Paint and Play" by the two composers. In that piece, which will conclude the program, artist Steve Haweeli will paint what he hears as the composers play what they see.
During the program, Herb Deutsch will perform on piano and trumpet his 1964 piece “Jazz Images, Worksong and Blues,” the world’s first composition to be made using sounds of the Moog. He will also be performing pieces and discussing the classic Minimoog Synthesizer, an instrument that went on to become the most important keyboard of the progressive rock and fusion jazz world of the 1970’s.
In addition to musical performances, the evening will include a demonstration of the Theremin, the first electronic instrument and one that originally inspired Robert Moog. Deutsch will also invite members of the audience to try it themselves. Other elements of the evening are recorded comments from Robert Moog on the birth of the synthesizer, as well as discussion of free jazz, analog synthesizers, and the Polyphonic Synthesizer.
