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Margaret Leng Tan

Margaret Leng Tan was born in Singapore in 1945 and won a scholarship to Juilliard at sixteen, where in 1971 she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in musical arts. After meeting John Cage in 1981 she became one of the leading interpreters of his keyboard music. She made her toy piano debut at Lincoln Center in 1993 with Cage's Suite for Toy Piano, and also plays toy drums and other unconventional instruments. Her Mode albums include The Art of the Toy Piano (1997) and She Herself Alone (2010). She lives in Brooklyn.

Margaret Leng Tan was born in Singapore in 1945 and won a scholarship to Juilliard at sixteen, where in 1971 she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in musical arts. After meeting John Cage in 1981 she became one of the leading interpreters of his keyboard music. She made her toy piano debut at Lincoln Center in 1993 with Cage's Suite for Toy Piano, and also plays toy drums and other unconventional instruments. Her Mode albums include The Art of the Toy Piano (1997) and She Herself Alone (2010). She lives in Brooklyn.

The Perilous Night / Four Walls
1991 release ** How well early, full notated, Cage is standing the test of time, especially the works for prepared piano and for percussion. The Perilous Night is a 12-minute prepared piano piece completed two years before Cage started his classic So…
Makrokosmos
George Crumb's Makrokosmos, Books I and II (1972-73), both complete on one disc, in composer-supervised recordings by pianist Margaret Leng Tan, a leading exponent of extended piano techniques.
The Piano Works 7 - Chess Serenade
First recording of John Cage's Chess Pieces (1944), rediscovered in a painting and transcribed by Margaret Leng Tan, with her recording of Sonatas and Interludes and the first recording of Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade.
Metamorphoses (Book I) / Five Pieces for Piano
George Crumb's earliest and most recent piano works on one CD: the first recording of Metamorphoses (Book I), ten pieces after famous paintings written for Margaret Leng Tan, and the Five Pieces for Piano (1962).
Sonic Encounters
Margaret Leng Tan's second recording, on piano: Cage's Primitive and In the Name of the Holocaust (first recordings), Hovhaness, Crumb, Satoh's Cosmic Womb for two pianos with digital delay, and Ge Gan-ru's Gu Yue. Released in 1988.
The Art of the Toy Piano 2
Margaret Leng Tan's follow-up to The Art of the Toy Piano: Cage's Suite for Toy Piano and Dream, a George Crumb song and other pieces, played on six toy pianos plus toy instruments, grand piano, music boxes and percussion.
The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan
DVD of two films by Evans Chan on pianist Margaret Leng Tan: the documentary Sorceress of the New Piano (2004) and the bonus film The Maverick Piano (2007), with performances of Cage, Ge Gan-ru, Satie and Twining and toy piano.
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