Bowerbird presents pianist Heather O’Donnell performing “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”
Bowerbird is pleased to present pianist Heather O’Donnell performing Frederick Rzewski’s iconic work The People United Will Never Be Defeated! 36 Variations on the Chilean Song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! at Trinity at 22nd.
PROGRAM
Frederic Rzewski (1938–2021)
The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)
36 Variations on the Chilean Song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Frederic Rzewski composed The People United Will Never Be Defeated! in 1975, creating one of the monumental works of twentieth-century piano literature. The hour-long cycle consists of thirty-six variations on the Chilean song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!, composed by Sergio Ortega and associated with the years surrounding Chile’s 1973 military coup. Over time, the melody came to symbolize solidarity and the enduring human desire for dignity and self-determination.
Commissioned for the United States Bicentennial, the work was premiered by Ursula Oppens at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on 7 February 1976. Fifty years later, this performance coincides with both the anniversary of that premiere.
Rather than presenting a straightforward set of variations, Rzewski transforms the song through an extraordinary range of musical languages – from counterpoint to jazz, minimalism, improvisation, virtuosic display, and moments of profound stillness. The result is a work that continually shifts between the individual and the collective, certainty and doubt, struggle and renewal.
Although rooted in a specific historical moment, the piece has long transcended its original context. Today it is regarded not only as one of the great masterpieces of contemporary piano literature but also as a meditation on resilience, memory, freedom, and the enduring capacity of communities to imagine a different future.
– H. O’Donnell