Love, Icebox (2025)

Composer John Cage and dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham have been important influences and inspirations for me throughout my creative life. Cage as an experimental composer and thinker about art and philosophy, often challenging norms of art and performance practice, and Cunningham who I saw dance and choreograph many times in my 20s and 30s.

Love, Icebox is the title of the recently published collection of love letters from Cage to Cunningham in the early years of their 40-year romantic and creative partnership. These youthful and insightful letters inspired me to write an evening length piece for solo piano, part of which accompanies the reading of them. Fondation Louis Vuitton graciously offered the commission for the piece. I have written it for acclaimed pianist Alice Sara Ott and in some places it incorporates methods from Cage’s own composing. Pieces by Cage and Satie who influenced him will also be integrated into the evening. The letters will be read by celebrated French actress Isabelle Huppert. John Cage has also been a significant influence on painter Gerhard Richter whose work is celebrated in the retrospective running simultaneously at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Bryce Dessner