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"THIS PROJECT WAS A HUGE ENDEAVOR," PIANIST ANTHONY DE MARE TELLS me of Liaisons, his new collection of re-imagined compositions by legendary lyricist/composer Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story, Company, into the Woods, etc). "And while ECM Records head Manfred Eicher is known for his mastery in sequencing albums, he actually asked me and my producer, Judith Sherman, to sequence it. He said, 'You do it, because you know the material so well.' He was right, because we had worked on it for four years!"
On the three CDs that comprise Liaisons, three-dozen composers from across the musical stratosphere join forces to celebrate and craft their own interpretations of classic Sondheim works. From film composer Thomas Newman and pop/rock/Broadway Wunderkind Duncan Sheik, to jazz icons like Fred Hersch and Wynton Marsalis, each of the project's participants found his or her own unique story to tell through the intricacies of Sondheim's music.
On a rare break between live performances, de Mare spoke to Keyboard about the monumental task of re-working some of the most acclaimed compositions of our time.
Can you tell our readers a little bit about your background and how it prepared you for a project like Liaisons?
I grew-up in Rochester, New York, and received my undergraduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Later in the early 1980s, I did my graduate work at the University of Buffalo with Yvar Mikhashoff, a teacher who specialized in contemporary music and who was very active in the new-music world. At that time, the university also had a center for contemporary music where they invited performers and composers from all different genres to hold residencies. So it was a very fruitful time.
Contemporary music isn't something that most young people get intrigued by. How were you exposed to it?
I started studying piano when I was seven years old, dance when I was eight, and children's theater when I was around nine. So the three of them were all intertwined in my life for the next 10 to 15 years. And so while studying music was a big part of my life, I also had a very strong interest in musical theater. I can trace that back to being a record collector as...