Award-Winning Pianist-Composer
Peter Manning Robinson
Debuts His Newly Created Refractor Piano™
In Concert at Bergamot Station – Santa Monica
Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Refractor Piano™ Concert
Riding Refractions for a Transcendent
Live Music Experience

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 11, 2016 – Award-winning pianist and composer Peter Manning Robinson will enthrall audiences with a stunning aural and visual art experience at his The Refractor Piano™ Concert on Thursday, April 28, 2016 at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station. Performing live with his invention, The Refractor Piano™, Robinson is pioneering a new music form: “refracted music.” Without using prerecorded tracks, triggered samples, external sounds, or MIDI instruments, the Emmy and multiple BMI award-winning composer creates a vast spectrum of new sounds with just a refracted, acoustic piano. In a sense, Robinson plays inside the refractions generated by his newly created instrument. His innovative compositions, rooted in classical and jazz traditions combined with improvisation and acoustic refraction, produce a truly original and transcendent live music experience. To learn more about the artist, please visit http://www.petermanningrobinson.com. For additional information on the event, please visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1088421337870300.

While Robinson and his creative collaborator, Klaus Hoch, have been working in the studio on The Refractor Piano™ project for a number of years, this is the first time Robinson’s Refractor Piano™ music will be presented publicly at a live concert event for adventurous music seekers. Set and projection designer Hana Kim is creating a special visual environment for the concert. In addition to performing, Robinson will also speak about his music and The Refractor Piano™. The performance will begin at 7:30pm and is free with reservations. Please RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peter-manning-robinson-the-refractor-pianotm-concert-tickets-5388553308. All ages are welcome. Light refreshments will be served. This one-night event will take place at Writers Boot Camp located in Bergamot Station at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Building i, Santa Monica, CA 90404 (310-998-1199; map). Ample free lot parking is available.

“This is a very different type of performance – the audience won’t be able to predict what to expect from moment to moment. The experience can be beautiful, unsettling, evocative, and transformative depending on the individual person and the composition,” says Robinson.

In Robinson’s hands, The Refractor Piano™, an adapted Steinway piano, is capable of generating a remarkable array of never heard before sounds. While the music is composed and the performance process is well-planned, “refracting” the raw acoustic sound makes each performance unique and never an exact reproduction. As Robinson performs, he rides the refractions as he bends and morphs the raw sound. The new textures he creates – acoustic refractions – are used to generate the distinct instruments and voices of each composition. Using the keyboard, fingers, mallets, and other implements, Robinson uses the entire piano to conjure up his new music.

Combining visual and aural elements, the concert will create a multi-sensory space for the audience. In collaboration with Robinson and Hoch on the event, Hana Kim is designing a unique visual environment that will incorporate digital, video, and sculptural elements to interweave with and heighten the visceral experience of Robinson’s music. The Refractor Piano™ Concert will be an adventure to expand all of the senses.

Peter Manning Robinson, Pianist/Composer –
Peter Manning Robinson is a composer, pianist, and vegan chef who has won an Emmy and multiple BMI awards. He was born in Chicago and grew up in Vancouver, Canada as well as on the streets of San Francisco. Then, at age 16, he ventured to Los Angeles. Robinson started touring and playing in clubs at a young age and received formal music training from USC and Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He has performed and recorded with such jazz greats as Ernie Watts, Phil Woods, and Freddie Hubbard. Robinson has also composed for film and television. He first met creative collaborator Klaus Hoch when he composed the music for Flypaper, which Hoch wrote and directed. Additional credits include Without A Trace and The Crow. Robinson won an Emmy Award for KABC’s Above and Below and five BMI TV Music Awards for Without a Trace. He was also nominated for an OFTA Television Award for The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. Members of The London Philharmonic, MusicaNova Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra have recorded his orchestral works.

In recent years, performing on his newly created The Refractor Piano™, Robinson is pioneering a new style of music called “refracted music.” Without prerecorded tracks, triggered samples, external sounds, or MIDI instruments, he creates innovative music that combines classical and jazz composition with improvisation and acoustic refraction for transcendent live musical experiences.

Klaus Hoch, Producer/Creative Collaborator –
Wearing many hats as creative director and producer, Klaus Hoch is a filmmaker who has collaborated with Peter Manning Robinson for the past six years on The Refractor Piano™ project. He and Robinson first collaborated on the feature Flypaper, which Hoch wrote and directed – a black comedy crime film featuring Craig Sheffer, Robert Loggia, Illeana Douglas, and Lucy Liu. Hoch studied music composition with pianist and composer Wally Cirillo as well as guitar with jazz legend Joe Diorio. He earned an MFA from NYU in Film and Television and is a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Hana Kim, Designer –
Hana Kim is an award-winning set and projection designer for theater. Recent design credits include: projection for Fallujah, directed by Andreas Mitisek (Long Beach Opera); scenic and projection for Dogeaters, directed by Loretta Greco (The Magic Theatre, San Francisco); projection for museum installation of Pearls of the Planet (Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles); and Em-ee-leh (Baryshnikov Arts Center, NY).

She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Theater Design and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. Her works were also featured in the architecture magazine Form as well as the book Scene Design and Stage Lighting by Dick Block.

“The Bergamot event will definitely appeal to music adventurers – open-minded music lovers who are hungry for creative new sounds and original art experiences,” says Hoch.

Links –
• Peter Manning Robinson Official Site – http://www.petermanningrobinson.com
• Facebook Event Page – https://www.facebook.com/events/1088421337870300
• RSVP – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peter-manning-robinson-the-refractor-pianotm-concert-tickets-5388553308
• Peter Manning Robinson IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0732974
• Peter Manning Robinson YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/ImageMusicPMR
• Hana Kim Official Site – http://hananow.com
• Writers Boot Camp – http://www.writersbootcamp.com

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For more information, photos, sound files, to schedule an interview, or request press tickets, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

Peter Manning Robinson with his Refractor Piano™.
(Photo credit: Klaus Hoch)

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~ Pre-Refractor Piano™ Quotes about Peter Manning Robinson ~

“Brilliant.”
– Michael Cuscuna, Record World Magazine

“An alchemist’s experiment” and “futuristic, mystical.”
– Philippe Oreille, Grenoble Jazz Festival Reviewer

“Some of the most original music since Olivier Messiaen. The listener is assaulted, disturbed, enveloped, given new life.”
– Phil Cohen, Artistic Director, Leonardo Project, Concordia University, Montreal

“With Lisztian abandon, Robinson is obviously at home in free-form atonal music while maintaining both his classical and his jazz roots.”
– Titus Levi, Keyboard Magazine