Pandemic Dance #30 (2020)

Gene Pritsker (b. 1971) — Pandemic Dance #30 (2020) for electric guitar and organ

Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
Carson Cooman, organ

When the period of home quarantine for coronavirus pandemic began in mid-March 2020, Gene Pritsker proposed to various performer colleagues a duet project where he would compose a series of short duos for himself (electric guitar) along with a wide array of other instruments. The two parts would be recorded by each musician at home. The instruments in the series range from the ubiquitous (piano) to the unusual (flowerpots). (For those colleagues who were also composers, he asked if they’d also write a duo in the same manner.)

American composer Gene Pritsker (b. 1971) was born in Russia and moved with his family in 1978 to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He attended the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Giampaolo Bracali. While at MSM, Pritsker founded the Absolute Ensemble with conductor Kristjan Järvi. Since then, Pritsker has also been involved as organizer/director with various other ensembles and groups including Sound Liberation and Composers Concordance. His hundreds of compositions have been widely performed throughout the world and employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, ranging from classical to hip-hop and rock and incorporating influence from his studies of world musical cultures. In addition, he has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including “Cloud Atlas,” for which he wrote his “Cloud Atlas Symphony.”