CIM’s Antonio Pompa-Baldi commissions new music for Ravel birthday celebration

Ravel is about to get the royal treatment from pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi and his CIM colleagues, including a student. 

On their Insiders series concert Friday, March 21, Pompa-Baldi and crew will present assorted works by Ravel as well as new music inspired by him, all in honor of his 150th birthday. 

It’s a tribute unlike any other, an apt celebration of a composer who himself transcended norms.  

“Ravel gifted us so many immortal masterpieces, which are known and loved by people everywhere,” Pompa-Baldi said. “But he was also such a creative spirit, and so I thought it would be wonderful to add newly written pieces to this homage.”  

Ravel’s music will be represented by two works: his Gaspard de la Nuit suite for solo piano and his Piano Trio in A minor, in which Pompa-Baldi will be joined by violinist Ilya Kaler and cellist Si-Yan Darren Li.  

“Ravel wrote amazing works for a variety of instruments, and I am grateful to my colleagues for agreeing to perform one of them with me,” Pompa-Baldi said.  

The rest of the program is all-new, featuring works by composers Roberto Piana and Luca Moscardi, both of whom Pompa-Baldi has known for years and commissioned on earlier occasions.  

Piana’s piece, Ravel en rêve, is a set of variations on the seventh waltz from Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales. In his notes for the work, Piana said he traces a path from mystery and intensity to “a liberating final climax,” all while striving to capture Ravel’s “sparkling spirit and musical dynamism.”  

The other new piece, Variations on the name Maurice Ravel, pairs Pompa-Baldi with a student artist, cellist Annamarie Wellems, for a world premiere. Picking up a method Ravel himself used in variations on Hadyn, the new work assigns a note to each letter of Ravel’s full name and then spins eight variations, each with its own musical form and style.  

“Ravel is such a towering figure in our world, and I’m thankful that two of my favorite living composers enthusiastically agreed to create new music in his honor,” Pompa-Baldi said. “Speaking for me and my colleagues, we are looking forward to this recital.”  

Friday, March 21 

7:30pm | Mixon Hall 

Antonio Pompa-Baldi, piano 

Ilya Kaler, violin 

Si-Yan Darren Li, cello 

Annamarie Wellems, cello, student artist 

Ravel at 150: A Celebration 

MOSCARDI   Theme and Variations on the name Maurice Ravel, Op. 50 (2024) 

   World premiere  

PIANA   Ravel en Rêve (2024)  

RAVEL   Gaspard de la nuit (1908)  

RAVEL   Piano Trio in A minor (1914) 

Reserve free seating passes at cim.edu/events.