Pianist Bryan Pezzone: Back on Track

Now recovered from injuries sustained in a mugging that occurred in early February, pianist Bryan Pezzone says his hand is now “doing great,” and he has begun playing the piano again.

Pezzone’s left hand suffered a deep cut during the incident, endangering his ring finger. A month later, the pianist underwent hand surgery. “The finger is numb, but feels great,” he said last week. How does the rest of Pezzone feel?

“Really well. Somehow, this whole experience has become positive. I guess that’s a decision I made, early on--not to let it get me down. I don’t know if I would feel the same way if I hadn’t been able to play again, though. . . .”

The CalArts faculty artist will play in public soon too, first at a private birthday concert for Nicolas Slonimsky being cooked up by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and MOCA, on April 27.

Then a week later, at a Green Umbrella series concert with the New CalArts Twentieth Century Players, at the Japan America Theatre, May 8. Brand-new works by Morton Subotnick and James Tenney will highlight that concert, as well as other pieces by Michael Jon Fink, and George Antheil’s historic “Ballet mecanique”.”

“I’m working harder, getting up earlier, and using my energy in new ways,” the 26-year-old pianist/composer explained, relating how his life is different since the incident.

In the coming season, he said, he and his wife, flutist Susan Pezzone, will perform together in public more than they have been able to do, recently. Already, he is putting in more time on his own compositions. His entire career seems to be coming into focus, he commented.

“Out of all this, and of spending all those weeks at home, recovering, I think I’ve got a greater appreciation for life in general, and for a lot of small things I used to take for granted.” Even the apparent necessity of acquiring two German shepherds has been a positive, Pezzone feels. “We love these dogs. But they need us, too, and that’s a whole new set of responsibilities for us to arrange into our lives. It feels good.”

BRIEFLY: Robert Duerr, who joined the musical staff of the Metropolitan Opera at the beginning of this season, will make his conducting debut with the company during 1989-90, when he leads performances of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” . . . Bruce Broughton, president of the Society of Composers and Lyrticists, will lead a new, UCLA Extension one-day course, “Knowing the Score: The Business and Benefits of Music in Film,” on the Westwood campus, May 20. Information: (213) 825-9064. . . . Still unseen in Los Angeles, John Clifford’s Ballet of Los Angeles continues to tour. The troupe is next scheduled to perform in Florida, April 22 and 23, in a ballet gala to be given in Miami. Listed on the roster are Allegra Kent, Nancy Davis, Valentina Koslova, Andris Liepa, Karyn Connell, Antonio Lopez and Courtland Weaver. . . . The Santa Monica performance space Highways, a new center announced here two months ago, will open its first season May 1. Announced for the first two months at the center co-founded by Tim Miller and Linda Frye Burnham are a gala, four-day benefit; a Cinco de Mayo celebration; an Irish minifestival, and performances by “troupes of local homeless people and unemployed shipbuilders,” according to Miller/Burnham. Information: (213) 453-3711 or (213) 822-9837. . . . The first annual May Music Festival at Cal State Northridge, May 1-6, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Northridge university (called, at the time of its founding, “San Fernando Valley State College”). On opening night, actress Cicely Tyson will narrate Joseph Schwantner’s “New Morning for the World,” on a concert by the CSN Symphony conducted by David Aks. The festival closes May 6 with a performance, utilizing ensembles totaling nearly 450 musicians, of Berlioz’s Requiem conducted by John Alexander.