Philadelphia’s Arcana New Music Ensemble presents excerpts from Black Lake (1969), another work composed for a Hawkins dance. Dlugoszewski’s compositional style often reflected a fusion of Eastern and Western philosophical ideas, and Black Lake is no exception. Structured as a series of short movements, the work incorporates forms such as the fugue and chaconne alongside concepts drawn from Eastern aesthetics, including sabin, wabi, and p’o—ideas that emphasize imperfection, transience, and the expressive qualities of restraint. The piece also showcases some of Dlugoszewski’s most distinctive invented percussion instruments, including Ladder Harps, Tangent Rattles, and Square Drums, which lend the music an unmistakably original timbral palette.

Following intermission, pianist Agnese Toniutti performs Exacerbated Subtlety Concert (Why Does a Woman Love a Man?) (1997/2000), one of Dlugoszewski’s final completed works. This composition represents the culmination of nearly five decades of exploration and refinement in her approach to the timbre piano, a radical reimagining of the instrument that she developed through extended techniques and unconventional playing methods.

The evening concludes with Disparate Stairway Radical Other (1995), a work of rhythmic intensity and vivid textures for string quartet and five dancers, performed by the Daedalus Quartet and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Originally composed for Hawkins’s dance *Journey of a Poet*, this performance features new choreography by Katherine Duke, current artistic director of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company and a direct artistic descendant of both Hawkins and Dlugoszewski. A defining work in Dlugoszewski’s late career, the music brims with energy, constantly shifting between bold instrumental colors and striking timbral contrasts.

Duende, a concept famously explored by Federico García Lorca, speaks to an almost mystical force in artistic expression—an intensity that arises from deep emotional, physical, and even existential struggle. It is not simply passion or virtuosity but something raw, primal, and unpredictable, emerging from the tension between beauty and darkness, control and surrender. Otherness, in contrast, suggests a state of being outside the familiar, an estrangement from conventional frameworks that allows for new modes of perception and experience.

The program title Duende Otherness reflects Lucia Dlugoszewski’s pursuit of music that resists the expected and embraces the unknown. Duende evokes the visceral, almost physical energy of sound as a living force, while Otherness signals her commitment to breaking away from inherited traditions, whether through new instrumental techniques, unconventional structures, or her rejection of narrative in favor of pure sensory immediacy. In her work, sound does not represent or signify—it becomes, vibrating at the edge of the unfamiliar, inviting the listener into an experience beyond certainty.

The concerts will highlight two of Dlugoszewski’s groundbreaking innovations—her timbre piano technique and her orchestra of invented percussion instruments. The timbre piano, a radical expansion of the grand piano’s sonic possibilities, will be explored in multiple works by Italian pianist Agnese Toniutti. Her invented percussion instruments, originally developed with sculptor Ralph Dorazio and reconstructed by Dustin Donahue, will also play a central role in the performances. The programs will feature performances by Network for New Music, Arcana New Music Ensemble, Either/Or, and Peter Evans, among others.

The phrase “Pure Lucia” comes directly from Dlugoszewski’s own writings, appearing throughout her notebooks as a kind of artistic mantra—an affirmation of staying true to her vision, pushing boundaries, and resisting external pressures. The same phrase was echoed by those who knew her personally; when recalling moments that defined her character, they would often say, “That was Pure Lucia.”

This project adopts that name as a tribute to the authenticity, innovation, and uncompromising artistry that shaped her life and music.

All music by Lucia Dlugoszewski (1925 – 2000)