Canceled
Marta Sánchez prepared piano project
Marta is preparing to perform her book of etudes, which were written for a prepared piano. These pieces were composed during her residency at the MacDowell Colony, where Marta drew inspiration from the surroundings to capture the various scenes and moods of the place.
Marta Sanchez BIO
Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, pianist, and composer Marta Sánchez is actively working in the contemporary creative music scene in New York City and around the globe. Charting a significant path through her innovative and original music, she has reached an international audience, gaining important global recognition.
Marta moved to New York in 2011 to study for a Masters’s degree in Jazz Piano Performance at NYU thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. Since then, Marta’s main project, her quintet, has released four albums: “Partenika” (2015), “Danza Imposible” (2017), “El Rayo de Luz” (2019), and “SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (2022). All of the albums received high praise from the American press, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fresh Air, WBGO, DownBeat, All Music, All About Jazz, and many more. Two of her recordings (“Partenika” and “El Rayo de Luz”) were selected by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Albums of the Year.
She has toured the United States and Europe performing as a leader at prestigious venues and prominent festivals such as Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival, Madrid Jazz Festival, Eurojazz in Mexico City, Eurojazz in Athens, Jazz Festival Vitoria Gasteiz, Winter Jazz Festival in New York, festivals in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Eurojazz Jazz in Athens, and many others. In the States, she has performed at some of the most prestigious clubs including Dizzy’s Club, Jazz Gallery, Birdland, Blue Note, 55 Bar, Smalls, Mezzrow, and Roulette Intermedium among many others.
She received prizes for the best soundtrack for a short film in the festivals Alcalá de Henares, Curtficcion in Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca.
In 2017 and 2021 she received a prestigious grant for a residency from the MacDowell Colony, where Marta wrote a prepared piano repertoire.
Ethan Iverson-curator’s note
There are two hour-long concerts every night at 7:30 and 9, more like jazz practice than classical convention. We expect to turn the room over (there are only 60 seats) so most of those who are performing formally notated works will probably play the same program twice (a comparatively rare opportunity to enjoy such a liberating sequence)
Wednesday 14 Marta Sánchez has a bright future. I have written liner notes for two of her records and dig David Murray’s current quartet with Marta in a heavily-featured role. Her intricate and contrapuntal jazz compositions are in the modern style, but, crucially, they are also informed by the long musical lineage of her native country, Spain.