In Memoriam Wendy Maraniss | by Christopher Kaufman

Описание: Thursday, January 22, 2026, 7:00 PM
MELODIES & PSALMS (#106)
Tenri Cultural Institute
43-A West 13th Street
New York, New York

Christopher Kaufman — In Memoriam: Wendy Maraniss
— Craig Ketter, piano

Wendy Maraniss was a fine pianist and independent music teacher in Ithaca, N.Y. She
was a wonderful mother to two boys, Dave and Max, and wife to her husband Brian.
She had two brothers and a sister. She was of that breed of pianists that could perform
all style of music as well as another might perform their specialty. She was of the
fellowship of independent musicians: she had a large studio of young people and
composed small works for them. She was too shy to dance in public, yet had no
problem performing Ligeti in front of Ligeti himself, who was effusive in his
appreciation of her performance. I trusted her implicitly with my own music and we had
an excellent artistic friendship. Wendy had become a core member of my public
vehicle, CHIRON Performing Arts.
In the fall of 1997 she struck a patch of black ice en route to a make-up lesson for a
young student. She was tragically taken from us and the entire musical community of
Ithaca felt the loss. Her memorial concert event, held at Cornell University, was
impressive in the richness of the appreciation so many people had for this remarkable,
gentle, brilliant and powerful woman. I composed and performed this work for that
event. In Memoriam: Wendy Maraniss is my humble offering to her memory.
In this work I utilize the the letters of Wendy’s name in music. The first five notes of
the work spell WENDY. After two repetitions, there is a connecting phrase and then a
climactic chord which spells MARANISS, the final E-flat of which is expressed as the
intonation of a gong or church bell-like sound. As each section of music begins, one
may hear her name “said” in a different way; the repeating ostinato of the second
movement, for example, over which a free melody was composed, or the many
derivations in the third movement. In this way, I’ve expressed a musical portrait and
the richness of Wendy’s personality. Other references to her name include the
extensive and varied use of quintuplets (her first name), climactic repetitions of
thirteen (first and last name), sonoral realizations of musical material, the overall form
[three movements with two repeated movements] and elements beyond words to
express and involve matters such as spiritual vision, emotional intelligence, sensorial
matters and the teachings of friendship. The project page for this work can be found at
soundartus.com.

Links:
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