“The Stone Harp” Makes its Debut at Dairy Arts After Four-Year Wait

Composer John Clay Allen and pianist Er-Hsuan Li collaborated to bring the concerto to the stage for the first time

In April 2020, John Clay Allen was preparing for the premiere of his original piano concerto, ‘The Stone Harp: Concerto for Piano and Strings,’ when the world went silent. 

Nearly four years to the day and a pandemic later, Allen finally brought his music off the sheet and onto the stage of the Gordon Gamm Theater at the Dairy Arts Center on April 13, 2024. 

“I’m really pleased with how it went,” Allen said afterward. “I’m happy with how everyone played, it’s not easy music and I’m really impressed with how it came together.”  

The piece was paired with the 1933 Piano Concerto No. 1 by 1933 Piano Concerto No. 1 and performed by an orchestra and piano soloist Er-Hsuan Li, a graduating doctor of musical arts at UC Boulder. It was a celebratory night for Allen and his supporters, who have waited years to finally hear the piece live, and for Li, who will officially graduate from his doctoral program on May 9.

Performing two piano concertos during one concert in itself is a novelty, due to it being incredibly taxing for a pianist to learn and perform. Both pieces are lively and virtuosic, and Li was a well-met match for the music, bringing an almost dancer-like flair to his piano playing that granted him command of the stage.

(From right to left) Composer John Clay Allen, pianist Er-Hsuan Li and conductor Renee Gilliland take a bow at the end of ‘The Stone Harp’ at The Dairy Arts Center on April 13. Photo by Natalie Kerr.

Erin and Tony Moore are friends of Allen’s, but ‘The Stone Harp’ was their first time hearing his work live. It was an emotional and exciting night for them to hear such amazing music, especially knowing the person who created it. 

“The music is really complex, when I listen to it, it’s like when you’re living in a moment but your brain is trying to balance the internal and the external, that’s what I was feeling during the concerto,” Erin Moore said. 

Allen completed The Stone Harp in 2018, after deciding to challenge himself by composing for a piano, which he tends to avoid despite mainly playing piano himself. Though Allen is an accomplished composer whose music has appeared on stages across the United States, South America, and Europe, ‘The Stone Harp,’ was a chance to get out of his comfort zone and prove to himself that he could successfully compose for piano, he said. 

Thematically, the work is a representation of personal struggles with faith and religion, and parts of its musicality draw from protestant hymn tradition. The name of the concerto comes from a John Haines poem of the same name, in which the author makes the metaphor of the Earth as a stone harp and the writer as the harpist. 

“I thought it was a beautiful metaphor, the piano itself is not that different from a harp once you open it up and look inside,” Allen added. 

Allen returned to the piece last year when he began planning the concert with Li, and the two of them spent nearly six months revising the piece to align more with Allen’s current taste and the technical nuances of Li’s playing style. 

As for the Shostakovich piece, Li has performed several versions of it since he first learned it ten years ago. 

“I’ve had that in my fingers for a long time,” Li said.

Er-Hsuan Li warms up for his performance at The Dairy Arts Center on April 13. Photo by Natalie Kerr.

Li began playing piano at age five and studied piano performance throughout high school, college, and now his graduate program, which he completed this month. He is already an accomplished musician, having performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. in renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Harris Theater in Chicago, Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Taiwan National Concert Hall. 

Li came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age 18 to study piano, and his family, who still lives in Taiwan, will be traveling to Colorado to celebrate his graduation on May 9.

Andrew Cooperstock, Li’s piano teacher at CU Boulder, came to the performance to see one of Li’s final performances as a doctoral student. Li came to Cooperstock as a phenomenal pianist but his growth during the last six years turned him into a mature and accomplished concert artist, he said. 

John Clay Allen addresses the audience at The Dairy Arts Center on April 13. Photo by Natalie Kerr.

“I thought he was brilliant,” Cooperstock said of the evening’s performance. “It was energetic, just so expressive and I’m very proud of him.” 

The evening was also a long time coming for Allen’s biggest supporters, including his parents who came from New Mexico for the performance. 

“It fills my heart with joy to get it out there, it’s been one of his babies,” said Allen’s mother, Paula Allen. “During Covid, everybody just shut down, but during that time he wanted to do this, but he couldn’t. It’s much better now that he got it out there.”  

Li felt the performance went smoothly and that the music sounded great. The timing was poignant for him, as he had just wrapped up his final assessments and officially became a doctor of music the week before. 

“This is a very special thing personally, for me, since that’s a huge achievement,” Li said. “But also, I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to go through this higher education and be able to pursue a career in a field that not everyone wouldn’t necessarily go for.” 

Allen’s next commercial album, which features solo piano, will be released in late 2024.