Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center for Performing Arts
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
Commencement Concert
May 25, 2012

American Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Leon Botstein
Trumpets - Tamás Pálfalvi, Balazs Varga, Christopher Carroll,


Tremors is a brief symphonic invitation into the world of ambitious compositional ideas. It essentially reflects the often present struggle between the composer's intention and natural resistance of the musical material which frequently demands treatment contradictory to composer's will. Situations of struggle might sometimes be overcome but sometimes they lead to a compromise in which even a piece originally sketched as "Concerto grosso per quatro trompeti e orchestra symphonica grande" turns into a lyrical commencement evening nocturne. 

Tremors - Nocturne for symphonic orchestra and four trumpets, American Symphony / Leon Botstein

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
Troy, NY, USA
October 22, 2010

Albany Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - David Alan Miller
Capital Repertory Theater actors:
Brenny Rabine - Hermia
Kevin Craig West - Lysander

Inspired by William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's
Dream,as well as by Mendelssohn's incidental music for this
play, That Fire Which Burned the Carthage Queen was completed
five weeks prior to its premiere on October 21, 2010. It is an
approximately nine minute long symphonic melodrama
featuring two narrators. The piece uses a textual excerpt from
the first scene of act one, in which Lysander and Hermia discuss
how to escape the "sharp Athenian law" which will not allow
them to marry each other. In terms of form, I chose a design
that starts with about a minute long introduction followed by
several sections of text-dependent music. At several places, the
text is interrupted by longer fermatas, which suggest increased
levels of emotional content. The use of a relatively traditional
musical language corresponds to my own personal conviction
that the effectiveness of communicating emotional affects
largely depends on the degree of one's familiarity with the
material perceived.

That Fire Which Burned The Carthage Queen (2010) - Albany Symphony Orchestra/ David Alan Miller

Quintet for piano, two violins, viola, and violoncello
Music Alive 2011, spring, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA

Lukáš Olejník - piano
Sabrina Tabby - violin I 
Danny Yuan Xu - violin II
Leah Gastler - viola
Tamás Zétényi - violoncello

Signum (2011), piano quintet

Music Alive 2012, 
Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA

Lukáš Olejník - piano
Sabrina Tabby - violin
Jennie Brent - violoncello

Trifolium - theme with variations for violin, violoncello, and piano (2005 - rev. 2012)

Lukáš Olejník - piano
recording by Zana Chan

Larghetto
Allegro appassionato
Lento misterioso
Allegro con brio, meditativo semplice

Four Miniatures for piano (2002)

Piano Project 2013, Stony Brook University, New York, USA
April 1, 2013

Lukáš Olejník - piano

One way to characterize Ephemerals, approximately nine minute long piece for a pianist-soloist, is perhaps by using a musical term phantasy. This term suggests the piece's formal-tectonic aspect. It is composed of a sequence of six sections that, despite of being only loosely attached, relate to each other by recurrent use and evolution of music material from the opening section. Given the description above, the other way to define this piece is as a set of  freely organized musical units remotely resembling a set of variations on an original theme. The so called theme is inspired by and draws on aesthetics used by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů in his 1924 piano cycle titled Marionettes.

Ephemerals for piano (2013)

New Music Marathon 2016
Longy School of Music of Bard College
Pickman Hall
Cambridge, MA
February 20, 2016

Yo Shionoya - oboe
John Ott - violoncello
Lukas Olejnik - piano

Born of the Echoes - Trio for oboe, violoncello and piano (2009)

Two Impressions for piano solo
2003 (rev. 2012)
piano - author
Olin Hall
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson
May 2012

Two Impressions for piano, piano - author

A native of Prague - the Czech Republic, Lukas Olejník (b. 1987) started studying composition at the age of nine, and went on to study composition and piano at the Prague Conservatory. In 2012 he completed his undegraduate studies at the Bard College Conservatory of Music (NY) where he studied with Joan Tower and George Tsontakis.  He then furthered his professional training at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge (MA) where he obtained his M.M. degree in composition and a Teaching Artist Certificate at the end of May 2015. The list of his compositions consists of nearly 40 works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles as well as a variety of orchestral formations. Olejník has had works premiered by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Da Capo Chamber Players, Ensemble Contemporaneous, Duo BeNe, Trifolium , and The Actors Studio, a Prague-based dance company with which he has actively collaborated since 2007. His latest composition and performance projects include a work for four solo trumpets and symphonic orchestra premiered by the American Symphony Orchestra in May 2012, a solo piano piece featured as a part of the 2013 annual Piano Project at Stony Brook University (NY) or 2015 and 2016 appearances at the New Music Marathon of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge (MA). Other festival appearances include Nová slovenská hudba in Bratislava (Slovakia), International Festival of Concert Melodrama in Prague (The Czech Republic)and Music Alive at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY).

Lukáš Olejník

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