US composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski will open the Dublin International Piano Festival & Summer Academy this Saturday 23 July with a concert titled ‘Hope & Remembrance’. The concert will include the world premiere of a newly commissioned work titled Rising (based on ‘The Foggy Dew’), as well as the composer’s 1975 work, The People United Will Never Be Defeated. The concert takes place at the The Hugh Lane at 1pm.

On Saturday at 7pm in Terenure, Rzewski, who also composed the 1971 work Coming Together, will give a piano masterclass, and on Sunday in Rathmines, he will participate in a seminar titled ‘Can Music Change the World?’

Commenting on the subject, the composer and pianist told The Journal of Music:

The idea that music may have, or does have, some kind of power to transform ordinary behaviour is very old…  Whether or not music may have a definable effect on political behaviour is more difficult to say…. if music does indeed have an influence on behaviour, it is not necessarily a positive one. This makes it controversial. And that means it is possibly worth discussing.

The Dublin International Piano Festival & Summer Academy runs until 2 August and also features concerts by Artistic Director of the festival Archie Chen, Lance Coburn, Jean Muller, Ethan Uslan and emerging pianists; and masterclasses from Barry Douglas, Muller, Chen, Coburn, Orla McDonagh and Evelyn Brancart.

For full details, visit http://www.pianofestival.ie