Compositions + Writings
Besides her work as a performer, Tzenka is active as a writer, teacher, lecturer and composer. She has commissioned a number of new works, and several composers have dedicated pieces to her.
Books
John Cage’s Prepared Piano: The Nuts & Bolts
178 pages | 6 x 9 inches | paperback | with b&w photographs | $25 | August 2008 | Mutasis Books | ISBN 978-0-9809657-0-4
At last, a book on the prepared piano of John Cage, dedicated both to the instrument itself and to the repertoire Cage created for it. It serves as an illustrated guide for pianists interested in exploring the world of the prepared piano, as well as an accessible source of information for the innumerable non-musician Cage-lovers.
"John Cage’s Prepared Piano: The Nuts & Bolts is beautifully written and offers Cage aficionados and professional pianists alike a rare understanding of the multi-faceted artistic nature of his work." — From the foreword by Dr. Greg Schiemer
Publications
Performers of Today: Artists or Music Historians? John Cage as a Stepping Stone to New Music
Musicworks Magazine | Summer 2006, issue # 95 | pp 11-14
This article briefly examines the separation between composers, performers, and audience which occurred in the early twentieth century, when historical recitals became the norm and performers neglected contemporary repertoire, a practice that still continues. It relates pianist Tzenka Dianova’s experience in using John Cage’s prepared-piano music as a bridge between older classical and avant-garde music, and recommends this both for audiences and performers.
Compositions
Through the Looking Glass
New composition for piano, tape and electronics. World premiere 31 January 2009 in Victoria, Canada.
First DeConstruction (The Perilous Night)
For unpreparing piano and tape, with Charlotte Rose, electronics and live processing. World premiere 29 April 2007 in Auckland, New Zealand.
VexEitaS
Prepared piano interpretation of Erik Satie's Vexations, with animated text. World premiere 15 April 2007 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Transcriptions
John Cage: Bacchanale
Transcription for prepared piano duet. Approved by Edition Peters for performance and recording.
Erik Satie: Socrate
Transcription for piano solo.
Commissions
Alcides Lanza: semios
New work for piano and electronics. Completed December 2009. World premiere September 2010 in Victoria, Canada.
Eve De Castro-Robinson: New Work
New work for prepared piano solo. Expected completion 2010.
Wolf Edwards: Stations
New work for harpsichord solo. Completed 2000.Dedications
Karlheinz Essl: Sequitur XIII
New work for inside piano and live electronics. Completed October 2009. World premiere 9 June 2010 in Klosterneuberg, Austria.
Maria Molinari: On 3's
New work for piano solo. Completed September 2009.
Nickos Harizanos: Amfisimia
New work for piano and tape. Completed August 2007.
Lectures
Shostakovich and his Sixth Symphony: the Enigma Remains
Pre-concert talk on Shostakovich's "Symphony No 6" for New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Lecture dates: 1 July 2006 • Auckland Town Hall and 8 July 2006 • Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand
This year we celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s birth. Thirty-one years after the composer’s death in 1975, he still remains one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures of twentieth-century art music. While music audiences around the world have accepted and loved his music, musicologists and art-music critics are at a loss as to how to classify his works, or rather, in what context to put them – should they be appreciated purely for their musical merit, or in relation to the specific historic-political climate in which they were created.
