Accordionist Rocco Anthony Jerry gave ten performances of “snow/wind/radios” by composer Yuji Takahashi. The composition for two accordions and voice is a musical setting of Diane di Prima’s poems which were read prior to each performance. Each performance was followed by ten minutes of silence.

The concert and meditation service was hosted by the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church on Sunday, September 25th to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan.

During the first five performances, the first accordion part was performed live and accompanied by a recording of the second accordion. For the next performances, the second accordion part was performed live with a recording of the first accordion part.

The Japanese composer and pianist, Yuji Takahashi, studied composition with Minao Shibata, Ogura Roh, and Iannis Xenakis. His career as a pianist made him a leading exponent of new piano music, and he developed a reputation for performing the most difficult new piano works. In the 1960’s, he performed the piano music of Xenakis, Boulez, and Cage in Europe and the U.S. He lived in the US for a number of years in the 1960’s on a Rockefeller grant, during which he was a soloist with many of America’s leading orchestras. During this time, he also taught at Indiana University and San Francisco Conservatory. In the 1970’s, he edited the Japanese avant-garde quarterly, “tranSonic”. In 1978-1985, he organized the “Suigyu Band” which performed Asian and Latin American protest songs. In 1990-2007, he composed many pieces for traditional Japanese instruments and voices, and has also written for keyboard instruments, chamber music, and orchestra.

Poet Diane di Prima attended Swarthmore College, later moving to Greenwich Village to become part of the Bohemian intellectual culture. Di Prima began a correspondence with the poet Ezra Pound, and became known as an important writer of the Beat movement. She co-founded the New York Poets Theatre and founded the Poets Press, which published the work of many new writers of the period. Di Prima is the author of 35 books of poetry and prose. Her work has been translated into over 20 languages. She has received writing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, an Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from the National Poetry Association, and an honorary doctorate from St. Lawrence University. She has taught poetry and spirituality courses at New College of California, California College of Arts and Crafts, and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Rocco Jerry has given solo concerts throughout the US including New York City, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, at venues including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute (Washington D.C.), the National City Christian Church (Washington D.C.), and other churches and halls in the US. He has performed with several chamber music groups including the Downtown Ensemble and the Flexible Orchestra and premiered new works by Peter Machajdik, Daniel Goode, Conrad Kehn, Arthur B. Rubinstein, Max Simoncic, and Robert Young McMahan, and has given the US premieres of many other pieces.  

Mr.Jerry performs each year at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City, during the annual AAA Concert Series , organized by Dr. William Schimmel. In 2009, Mr. Jerry premiered Conrad Kehn’s multi-media work “Maximinimal” for Accordion, Electronics, and Video at The Festival of Firsts, at The Brick Elephant in Valley Falls, New York (presided by composer, Mary Jane Leach). In May-June 2004, Mr.Jerry worked closely with Hollywood film composer, Arthur B. Rubinstein, and performed accordion in the premiere run of Rubinstein’s new musical “He Who Gets Slapped”, with the next run scheduled for the Mark Taper Auditorium in Los Angeles.

After being awarded a SPAF Project Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts in 2000, Mr. Jerry premiered Robert Young McMahan’s “Mists and Mountains” in solo concerts in upstate New York. In 2007, Mr. Jerry began the Accordion Ensemble Project , which was awarded an SOS Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2008. In this ongoing project, Mr. Jerry is recording all parts of accordion ensemble works, so that they may be performed as a solo, accompanied by his recording of the remaining parts.

To date, he has performed the accordion ensemble works of Bjorn Borstad Skjelbred, Peter Machajdik, Magnar Am, Kjell Perder, Jacob ter Veldhuis, and Yuji Takahashi, with more works added each year.

Rocco Jerry will provoke a free accompaniment CD or mp3 to anyone who wishes to perform this work as an accordion solo. For a free accompaniment recording or for more information: rajerry@juno.com