Fluid Silk

Fluid Silk, dedicated to the great flutist Lisa Hansen, is inspired by Lake Zürich, a still lake with gentle ripples. In the opening section the ensemble flows along subtly phasing the 28-note pattern creating a meditative mood. The middle section is lyrical and includes a chorale before returning to the gentle ripples growing to a swelling wave. 

-Katrina Krimsky

 It gives me great joy to share my arrangement of Fluid Silk by Katrina Krimsky. Katrina and I met through our mutual friend, cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. Back in 2012, I needed a piano coach to prepare for performances of my piano series Quiet Rhythms. Joan recommended Katrina and we soon became fast friends.

Fast forward to 2019, conductor Max Lifchitz, asked Katrina for a work for North/South Chamber Orchestra. Katrina suggested her piano piece Fluid Silk. The piece would feature her niece, flutist Lisa Hanson, a member of the group. It was then that Katrina asked if I would be interested in creating an arrangement for flute and strings. I was delighted to take up the challenge and quickly began working on it. (Due to Covid, the premiere took place in 2022.)

In adapting Fluid Silk for strings, I first changed the opening pattern from the pianistic key of Eb to D, a more idiomatic key with its open strings. Then, I changed the meter from 7/4 to alternate between 4/4 and 3/4. The 7/4 recurring pattern works well for solo piano, however, with an orchestra, by dividing the 7/4 measure into two shorter sections assists the ensemble in keeping their place and staying together. A violin soli was added about midway. Staggering the entry of the recurring string pattern helped vary the texture. A brief intro of high held-notes was added to imply the serenity of a lake at dawn with gentle ripples. Special thanks to Joan Jeanrenaud who provided fingering and bowing for the cello pattern beginning at measure 13.

-William Susman

Katrina Krimsky, pianist and composer, has developed an individual style blending the various sources of musical knowledge and experience she has absorbed through a lifetime devoted to music.

Her musical studies began at a very early age with her mother, an accomplished pianist, and continued at the Eastman School of Music.

Krimsky’s strong interest in avant-garde music and seeking new horizons led her to Cologne, Germany in 1964 where she was associated with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, Luc Ferrari and other prominent European composers and performed recitals of 20th Century piano music.

Returning to the States in 1967 she became a regular performer with the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts Ensemble at SUNY Buffalo and collaborated with such innovative American composers as David Rosenboom, Jon Hassell, and Terry Riley. Krimsky drew critical attention as “The Pulse” of Terry Riley’s seminal minimalist work “In C” at its Carnegie Recital Hall debut (1967) and first recording (Columbia Records).

As a member of La Monte Young’s Eternal Dream House ensemble, she sang and played tamboura in concerts including at the Munich Olympics 1972. Returning to the States she moved to San Francisco and joined Terry Riley, Pandit Pran Nath, David Behrman, and Robert Ashley on the Music Faculty of Mills College.

Katrina also sought connections to the jazz world and performed solo piano regularly at the jazz club Keystone Korner, listening to many of the master jazz musicians and performing with such greats as Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson. Her first recording Katrina Krimsky in 1975 included works by Samuel Barber, Terry Riley, and Woody Shaw for whom she was the inspiration for Shaw’s renowned “Katrina Ballerina”.

Together with saxophonist Trevor Watts she recorded “Stella Malu” on ECM label.

In 1980 she was invited to do a workshop and give a concert at the legendary Creative Music Studio in Woodstock. This recorded performance has been released as CD entitled “1980” on Unseen Worlds.

Composer/performer Irmin Schmidt of CAN recorded her music in the South of France and then produced her solo piano recording “Ambrosia”.

She was commissioned by Tage Für Neue Music Zürich for an ensemble version of Terry Riley’s “A Rainbow in Curved Air”. She appeared on Willisau and Zürich jazz festivals. With her performing ensemble including flautist Lisa Hansen and sitarist Krishna Bhatt, she concertized and recorded her original compositions on “Four Moons”. In 1998 appearing on the Merkin Hall Interpretations Series in New York she premiered “Bell Solaris” composed for her by David Rosenboom, “Superior Seven” by Robert Ashley, and her own works “Fluid Silk” and “Rhapsody for Two Pianos”.

More recently, she reprised her role as “The Pulse” with David Rosenboom’s Cal Arts Orchestra in LA’s Disney Hall (2006) and in a special 45th anniversary concert of “In C” at Carnegie Hall (2009) – joining the Kronos Quartet and other minimalist movement luminaries – The New York Times lauded Krimsky’s return as “The Pulse.”

Katrina continues her creative work and maintains residence in San Francisco, California.