Michael Century Piano Concert

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

February 10, 2026     12 noon

Program

Steve Reich     Piano Counterpoint(2011)

                         Arrangement of Six Pianos (1973) 

                          for solo pianist and tape

J.S. Bach         Partita in B minor       BWV 831

                          French Overture, Passepied, Sarabande, Echo

Michael Century   Yaman Groove* (2025)

                       Variations on Sargam Bandish in Raga Yaman by Pandit                            Pran Nath

J.S. Bach         Allein Gott in der Hohe sei Her          BWV 771

                         Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit        BWV 106        

                         Transcribed by György Kurtág for Four Hands, with Joey Latka

Philip Glass     Piano Etude #20 (2012)

* With Electronics using the Expanded Instrument System designed by Pauline Oliveros, 

with Special Permission of the Pauline Oliveros Trust and Ministry of Maåt

Michael Century, pianist, accordionist, and cultural historian, is Professor of New Media and Music in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He combines a passion for experimentation with an abiding commitment to the renewal of classical traditions in our age of burgeoning “artificial creativity.” His scholarly work addresses related topics, such as innovation in the arts and technology, with his next book project focused on the evolution of former RPI colleague Pauline Oliveros’s live electronic processing environment, called the ”Expanded Instrument System,” which is deployed on today’s program with special permission from the Pauline Oliveros Trust. Alongside live-coding digital artist Shawn Lawson, Century performs in the audio-visual duo Liveware, bringing live performance of sound and animation into synergy.

Before joining RPI he directed the Inter-arts and Media Arts programs at The Banff Centre (1979-93), and served as policy advisor for media arts and technology in the Canadian government (1993-2000).  Century  monograph on Canadian innovation in new media, Northern Sparks, was published by The MIT Press in 2022. Century studied piano with Reginald Godden in Toronto, theory/composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and holds degrees in music history from the Universities of Toronto and California at Berkeley. Recent performances include the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture, Stanford University’s CCRMA, Harvestworks Art and Technology Center, and 2025 International Computer Music Conference