Episode 101 — April 6, 2021
Ryan Francis: “Wind-Up Bird Preludes” for piano
Performed by Gabrielle Chou

When violinist and pianist Gabrielle Chou first discovered the writer Haruki Murakami, she blew through all of his books, quickly becoming a fan. So when the opportunity to play a piece that’s inspired by his novels arises, she jumps on it. Ryan Francis’s Wind-Up Bird Preludes, which is inspired by Murakami’s celebrated book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, was, then, a natural fit. Here, she performs it for her House Music series video.

This is Chou’s first collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble. She’s been living in New York for eight years, and throughout that time, she’s seen many of her friends work with the group. And since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s been keeping up with the House Music series, watching her friends share their projects across social media. So she reached out to Metropolis through a cold email, and this House Music collaboration was born.

Chou has long felt an emotional connection to Wind-Up Bird Preludes, but she was especially interested in picking it for the House Music series because Francis has worked with Metropolis for some time. She’d initially learned the piece in the fall of 2019. This video was recorded much later in a small studio at The Juilliard School. With her recording, she hopes to present a well-balanced interpretation of the delicate music.

Notes by Vanessa Ague

 
House Music: Bite-sized concerts recorded at homes around the world

In 2020-21, we created a weekly video series featuring short-form concerts of newly-commissioned works, supporting 208 artists around the world during the pandemic.