Pianist Joseph Kubera’s affiliation with Julius Eastman goes back to the early 1970s in Buffalo, NY, and continued after 1980 in New York City, where he performed with Eastman in his multiple-piano works and in other concert presentations. He made the first recording of Eastman’s Piano 2, and he has directed performances of Eastman’s works in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and in Belgium and England.
Praised in The Wire (UK) for his “instrumental athleticism, technical precision and conceptual lucidity,” and his “capacity to stretch limits and redefine horizons,” Kubera has been a leading new-music pianist for the past four decades. Recently he played at De Singel in Antwerp, at the “Christian Wolff at 90” celebration in New York, and recorded piano music by Daniel Goode, Lejaren Hiller and Laurie Spiegel. He has been a soloist at major European festivals and has worked closely with such luminaries as Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, and La Monte Young. Composers who have written works for him include Larry Austin, Michael Byron, Anthony Coleman, Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.
A longtime Cage advocate, Kubera has made definitive recordings of Music of Changes and the Concert for Piano, and toured widely with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Cage’s invitation. He has worked with S.E.M. Ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, and myriad other ensembles in New York City. He has collaborated with pianists Marilyn Nonken, Adam Tendler and Sarah Cahill, and baritone Thomas Buckner. Kubera has been awarded grants through the NEA and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has recorded for Wergo, New Albion, New World, Lovely Music, Tzadik, and many other labels.