Shifting States is a work for solo piano in one movement of approx. 8' 20" duration.
The compositional idea of this work is the way a relationship between two states, one peaceful and more passive, and one more aggressive and dominating interact and change thoughout the piece. Most of the work is derived from events that happen on the first page.
The inspriation came from how divided the U.S. was becoming, and then becoming aware that it wasn't just this country, and since the time I had written this piece it seems that things have only gotten worse.
It's not like other piano pieces that I have composed, have more 'gestural' content consisting of shorter spans of music. It is a piece for our times.
Richard Campanelli received his M.M. degree from Hartt School of Music where he studied with Donald Harris. He was a Nikos Skalkottas fellow at Tanglewood during the summer after graduating from Hartt School where he studied with George Perle.
Mr. Campanelli received his DMA from the University of MI where he studied with Leslie Bassett, George B. Wilson, William Bolcom and Eugene Kurz.
Mr. Campanelli’s awards include yearly ASCAP grants, a Meet the Composer grant, a Charles Ives Fellowship and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, The Holtkamp Award for new organ music, a Marimolin prize for new music for violin and marimba, and 2 Michigan Council for the Arts grants. He has had two orchestral pieces premiered by the Detroit Symphony.
Mr. Campanelli has also received commissions from the Detroit Symphony, Oboist Harry Sargous, and the Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, DC where he was on the production board.
His piano duo was premiered at the Busan Cultural Center by pianists Seung-Hwan Kim and Hyo-Jin Jang.
