Up North: concerto for piano and orchestra (2024-2025)
On April 25, 2025, Daniel gave the world premiere of his piano concerto, “Up North,” with the Idaho State-Civic Symphony under the direction of music director Nell Flanders. The piece transported listeners through the vivid memories of childhood travels—capturing moments of cheer, nostalgia, charm, and the warmth of family. Pesca’s expressive and technically brilliant playing brought this deeply personal work to life and was met with a standing ovation from the audience of more than 1,000, enthusiastically praising Daniel for his imaginatively colorful composition and virtuosic performance. This groundbreaking piece was preserved in a professional recording session the following morning, and will be released by City Creek Records in an upcoming season.
COMMISSIONED BY A CONSORTIUM OF FIVE ORCHESTRAS:
April 25, 2025: Idaho State-Civic Symphony with Nell Flanders (Pocatello, ID)
December 6, 2025: University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Barbara Schubert (Chicago, IL)
April 11, 2026: University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra with Mark Powell (Rochester, NY)
May 17, 2026: Diablo Symphony Orchestra with Matilda Hofman (Walnut Creek, CA)
Coming Fall 2026: Hopkins Symphony Orchestra with Jed Gaylin (Baltimore, MD)
Each summer of my childhood, my family took a trek “up north”: a long journey by car from where we lived in Alabama to Cheboygan, in Northern Michigan. Once there, we stayed in a splendid, grand, rather dilapidated Victorian house that had been in the family for generations. Some of my happiest memories are of the house itself, the relatives who would gather there (many no longer with us), the lovely scenery of the Great Lakes, and the relative coolness and breeziness of the climate—a relief from the stifling summer heat back in Alabama. My piano concerto “Up North” evokes this world.
The outer movements are cheerful and outdoorsy. The first, “Arrival,” begins the piece on a sunny note: the joy of reunions, the playfulness and impatience of youth, its fickle changing moods. The last movement, “The Straits,” zooms out to the geography of the region: specifically the Straits of Mackinac, its grand suspension bridge, and the exhilarating ferry-ride to Mackinac Island.
The inner movement, “The House on Dresser Street,” is the expressive core of the piece. It takes the form of a partita, with each of its five sections offering a different perspective on its subject. “From down the Block” offers a wistful vision of the silhouette of the house, anchored by a walking bass-line. “The Parlor” is akin to an elegant, old-fashioned waltz with filigree superimposed. “Hide and Seek,” a section which omits the strings, recalls the games we children played on the spacious grounds of the house: ducking, dodging, chasing. “The Attic,” which omits the winds, is a spell of nocturnal eeriness, with creaks and knocks calling to mind imagined ghosts. The final section of the movement, “The Old Piano,” is dedicated to my great aunt, Mimi, who loved to play the piano, and to my grandmother, Kay, who loved to sing old songs. My first memories of the music of Chopin and Rachmaninoff are from Cheboygan, transmitted through LPs, tattered sheet music, and Mimi’s halting but expressive fingers. This section is my love letter to Kay and Mimi, to the old piano in the house on Dresser Street, and to the legacy of the Romantic concerto.
— Daniel Pesca