Alex Peh
pianist
Red Nines
A new solo piano composition by Anna Clyne dedicated to Alex Peh. Recording @ Oktaven studios
Padetha
A new solo piano composition by Ne Myo Aung inspired by Burmese Sandaya style piano
Facets Modirzadeh
Paul Drescher Studios, San Fransico, CA. Performance of Hafez Modirzadeh's Facets for retuned piano with Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone, Keshav Batish, percussion.
Solo Facets
Solo arrangements of Facets, National Sawdust NYC
Ba Yadash
American premiere of Pooyan Azadeh's Ba Yadash in homage to his teacher, Persian classical pianist, Javad Maroufi
Talking Gong album
A debut trio album featuring percussionist and composer Susie Ibarra, pianist Alex Peh, and flutist Claire Chase. New Focus Recordings, 2021.
Roulette Intermedium, NYC
Our first show, live-streamed from Roulette Intermedium after COVID-19 Pandemic. Featuring special guest, Senem Pirler. Talking Gong, Messaien La Merle Noir, Pauline Oliveros The Witness.
Talking Gong Album Release
Album release party streamed featuring Cliare Chase, Alex Peh, Susie Ibarra.
Thway Tala: Kyo Song
From the Burmese Mahagita royal compendium of traditional piano pieces. Learned by ear from U Thet oo, pianist and teacher.
Piece of Minds
World premiere performance of Nikos Ordoulidis' Piece of Minds. National Sawdust, NYC.
Biography
Alex Peh is a pianist, improviser and scholar who explores the piano in global classical, contemporary, and improvised practices. A 2021 Fulbright Global Scholar, Peh explores new repertoire from parallel piano universes that exist alongside European classical-contemporary piano music, delving into different approaches to tuning, pedagogy, notation and musical transmission. He has commissioned composers Anna Clyne, Susie Ibarra, Hafez Modirzadeh, Phyllis Chen, Ne Myo Aung, Nikos Ordoulidis, and Kyaw Kyaw Naing funded by National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, New York State. Council of the Arts, Harvard FROMM, Arts Mid-Hudson, Asian Cultural Council and Fulbright.
As a 2019 Asian Cultural Council fellow, Peh travelled to Yangon, Myanmar to study Burmese piano, a classical style that the Burmese call Sandaya, from legendary pianist Dr. U Yee Nwe. Sandaya was developed in the 19th century when royal court percussionists adapted the European piano to play music from the Mahagita, the classical art song repertoire. Peh began his studies in Sandaya from Kyaw Kyaw Naing, an internationally-acclaimed percussionist, and leader of the national Saing Waing orchestra, the classical percussion and gong orchestra of Myanmar comprising over 40 pot gongs, chimes and drums. Alex collaborated with Kyaw Kyaw Naing to create the first Burmese Saing Waing ensemble in America, comprising students, faculty and community members at SUNY New Paltz. In 2019, they made their debut performance at Roulette Intermedium, New York City, performing a new composition that Kyaw Kyaw Naing composed for the group entitled Growing Rhythm. He collaborated with visual anthropologist Lauren Meeker to document this work as an ethnographic film, Growing Rhythm, that explores the process of attunement in learning Burmese Saing Waing music.
Peh is a member of Talking Gong, an improvising trio with percussionist, Susie Ibarra and flutist, Claire Chase. They released their debut album in 2019 entitled Talking Gong on New Focus Recordings available on all major streaming platforms. As a trio, they made their debut performance as part of the Davenport Residency for New American Music at SUNY New Paltz, and shortly after made their New York City debut at BRIC in the Look and Listen Festival 2018. They performed Pauline Oliveros’ The Witness at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NYC and Sonic Matter Festival in Zurich, Switzerland.