Dr. Mark Engebretson

• Music Performance
• Associate Professor, 2009
• Professor, 2015

Piano Concerto by Gyorgy Ligeti

György Ligeti, one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, identified his Piano Concerto as his “aesthetic credo.” In his works from the mid-1980’s (and especially in this concerto and in the Piano Etudes), Ligeti proposed a highly personalized, yet meaningful and liberating way out of the dominating ideologies of modernism and postmodernism. As part of my dissertation at Northwestern University, I chose to analyze the first movement of this amazing work, reflecting my own interest in Ligeti’s music, it's influence on my musical thinking, and the importance he himself placed on this composition. I continue to use this piece and others by Ligeti in my own studies and teaching.