Near Collision (2026)
Rhapsody for Piano Four Hands, 6'
Commissioned and dedicated to Lyn Silfen for the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the work received its world premiere on April 18, 2026, performed by Albert Cano Smit and the composer.
I grew up in New York, where everything is a little too close together and slightly too fast, and yet somehow it all works—a kind of chaotic ballet. It still amazes me how taxi drivers weave through traffic like Olympians, narrowly avoiding what feels like thousands of collisions a day—not to mention the nausea from the back seat.
Near Collision brings that energy to the piano. (I promise you won’t get nauseous.) Two players share a single instrument: hands crossing, lines overlapping, elbows occasionally colliding, timing constantly negotiated. There’s a particular art to four-hand playing—the constant adjustment, the quick decisions, the give and take—and the strange satisfaction of making it all hold together. It’s an ongoing act of coordination—part risk, part trust—where things threaten to unravel, but somehow don’t.
With nods to George Gershwin, the piece moves on momentum and proximity, finding its balance right at the edge of coming apart.
—Michael Stephen Brown (2026)