Adam Tendler. Photo: Cameron McLeod
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“You will be moved, profoundly and intensely.” — The New York Times
“The biggest emotional gut punch I got from a concert all year.” — The Washington Post
After his father’s unexpected death, pianist Adam Tendler received his inheritance as a literal wad of cash in a parking lot—an encounter that became the catalyst for an ambitious commissioning project. Inviting a wide-ranging group of composers and sound artists, Tendler asked each to respond to the idea of “inheritance,” resulting in a deeply personal yet universally resonant body of new piano works.
Woven into a single intimate program, these pieces explore lineage, memory, loss, and place, forming a meditation on how we confront the past while shaping the future. Featuring commissions by Devonté Hynes, Laurie Anderson, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, inti figgis-vizueta, and others, the program reflects a striking diversity of voices and perspectives.
Produced by Liquid Music, this project earned a 2026 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and has been featured on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
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Adam Tendler
A "daring pianist" praised for his "adventurousness and muscular skill" (The New York Times), Grammy-nominated artist Adam Tendler has been called "the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), “relentlessly adventurous” (Washington Post), a "remarkable and insightful musician" (LA Times), an "intrepid... maverick pianist" (The New Yorker), and "one of contemporary classical music's most intentional and daring pianists" (Seven Days). A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty states as part of a grassroots tour called America 88x50, the subject of his memoir, 88x50. He has since become one of classical music's most recognized and celebrated artists, receiving Lincoln Center's Emerging Artist Award, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, Sydney Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NJ Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, as well as on the main-stages of Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Sydney Opera House, BAM, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Milan Fashion Week, and other leading series and stages worldwide. As a recording artist, he is featured on Wild Up's Grammy-nominated third volume of Julius Eastman's music, and has also released albums of music by Franz Liszt, Robert Palmer, and of his own original work. He recently commissioned and recorded 16 new pieces using the entire inheritance left to him by his father after his unexpected death, including works by Laurie Anderson, Nico Muhly, Dev Hynes and Missy Mazzoli, as part of a program called Inheritances, a New York Times Critic Pick, which said of the album, "You will be moved, profoundly and intensely," and described the project as "a display of contemporary compositional force... a true show...emotionally involving...with a sense of true dramatic stakes." As Green-wood Cemetery's Artist-In-Residence, Tendler a site-specific installation, Exit Strategy, open through summer 2024. Adam Tendler is a Yamaha Artist and serves on the piano faculty of NYU.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported by 2026 season sponsors Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, with additional lead support from Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund.
Guild Hall’s Performing Arts programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, and the Anne Wolf Concert Fund.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, Amy Cooney and Marty Feinman, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve and Susan Pesner and Peace, in memory of Michéle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.