Barron Ryan Trio to Bring "There Arises Light in the Darkness" to KU Feb. 12

By Susan L. Peña

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Acclaimed pianist/composer Barron Ryan – whose work is influenced by masters from Beethoven to James Brown – will bring his piano trio to Kutztown University’s Schaeffer Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, as part of the KU Presents series.

Tickets for the Barron Ryan Trio are $35; $31 for students and seniors and can be purchased at the KU Presents website or by calling the KU Presents Box Office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, at 610-683-4092. Established to be the center of cultural life at Kutztown University, KU Presents serves the campus and community by bringing world-class live arts that entertain, educate and enrich.

A native and resident of Tulsa, Okla., Ryan began his piano training at age four. He was taught by his father, Donald, a graduate of Oral Roberts University and the University of Tulsa in music education and piano performance. Ryan, the elder, born in Trinidad and Tobago, competed in the International Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, in 1975 (the winner that year was the renowned Krystian Zimerman) and in 1980, and has had a robust performing and teaching career.

Barron was exposed to an eclectic mix of music by his musical parents, who met at college. His mother, an elementary school music teacher, would take him and his two older sisters to retirement homes in the Tulsa area to entertain the residents; they sang and she played piano. Meanwhile, his father led a jazz combo which performed regularly.

“I learned standard repertoire from my dad. But I didn’t love to practice; I loved to perform. I wanted piano lessons, but practicing had to be enforced sometimes,” he said, chuckling.

He fell in love with entertaining, but did not consider a career in music until he was in his junior year of high school.

“I considered engineering, but after taking an AP course in physics, I decided it wasn’t for me,” he said. “So I got to practicing consistently.”

Ryan also played drums in the high school jazz band, and “Dad hired me to play drums with his jazz combo,” he said. “While I was in college, they needed a pianist, so I learned to improvise.”

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma as a piano performance major, Ryan embarked on a career as a concert pianist, but with a twist. Not content with the usual classical repertoire, he began looking for classical pieces inspired by jazz and ragtime. His 2013 debut album, “Classical With Attitude,” featuring works by George Gershwin, William Bolcom and Nikolai Kapustin, brought raves.

As Ryan was improving his improvisation skills, he transcribed a number of solos by jazz legends like Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and Erroll Garner. This led to his second album, “The Masters’ Apprentice” (2017).

Until 2019, he had not written any original music for public consumption. That year, “I had a local performance lined up, and I didn’t have anything new to play that the local audience hadn’t heard,” he said. “I wanted some classical music influenced by pop, country, funk and blues, but I couldn’t find anything.”

So armed with an education in theory and orchestration he had received in college, he got to work on a four-movement piano sonata, using Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3 as a road map. Using this quintessentially classical form, he wove in themes reminiscent of James Brown, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and others.

When he premiered his Sonata in B-flat, the concert was attended by a member of the Chamber Music Tulsa board, who recommended that he be commissioned to write a new piece for a chamber ensemble for the 2021 commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

“I was scared out of my mind,” Ryan said. “Here I was, this green composer. I had no experience composing for chamber music.”

But his logical mind locked in, and he began to solve the problems facing him. He settled on a manageable standard ensemble, the piano trio, which is also one of the most popular and good for touring. He drew on a Psalm – Number 88, “My Soul Is Full of Troubles” – for the theme, because of an eyewitness account by a woman who survived the massacre, relying on reading the Psalms for solace.

“It’s a dark lament,” Ryan said. “There’s no uplift at the end. There are moments of hope, but otherwise it’s devastating.” The premiere, in which he performed with the first violinist and cellist of the Thalea String Quartet, went very well, and he was inspired to write two more movements, resulting in “There Arises Light in the Darkness.” In June 2024, he released it as a recording of the same name, with violinist Christopher Whitley and cellist Sterling Elliott (Alex Cox will replace Elliott as the cellist for the KU performance).

The other two movements, which Chamber Music Tulsa agreed to commission, are also based on Psalms: “Unto Thee Have I Cried” and “The Heavens Shall Praise Thy Wonders.” “There’s a struggle movement, then a discovery movement and a triumph movement,” Ryan said. “The City of Tulsa didn’t end in 1921, and I wanted to write more, to make it a bigger story with triumph at the end, like a hero’s journey.”

The whole piece was premiered Sept. 29, 2023, at Guthrie Green, an outdoor venue lit with candles that evening. Since then, it has been performed again in Tulsa and Brooklyn, and this year the trio will perform it at Penn State Harrisburg Tuesday, Feb. 11, and in Frederick, Md. Thursday, Feb. 13.

Meanwhile, Ryan has been commissioned by Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass., to compose a piano solo for its Portraits Project, honoring African American founders, which premiered this past fall.

Of his approach to composition, Ryan said: “I take a lot of notes from standup comedians. They have one goal, to make us laugh. I also have one goal, to make the audience have a sense of wonder and awe. I deliberately make choices that keep me in touch with the audience, and I’m not pursuing a university job. I want my boss to be the listener. I look for the right way to reach the audience.” (So much for Milton Babbitt’s “I don’t care if you listen.”)

Ryan also performs often with his father as the Ryan and Ryan Piano Duo. He has written an illustrated storybook for adults, “Honey, If It Wasn’t for You” (2023), a true story about his bringing a long-buried song to life for its composer’s widow. He will have copies available at the concert.