Piano alumna Brianna Matzke premieres TREMOR project at American Sign Museum

When pianist Brianna Matzke (MM Piano Performance ‘11, DMA Piano Performance ’14) was diagnosed with an essential tremor in her hands in 2020, she kept the diagnosis private.

“I was afraid for my professional career,” she says. “Not because I was worried about the shaking—I was already dealing with the shaking for many years at that point… what I was worried about was the stigma.”

A progressive neurological disorder, essential tremor affects an estimated 10 million people in the United States. For a professional pianist, the diagnosis brought with it concerns over how she would be perceived as a performer and artist.

In addition to her career as a pianist, Matzke is the founder and artistic director of The Response Project, a commissioning initiative “that asks composers and artists to create new music (usually for the piano) and new works (of many disciplines) in response to a preexisting work or idea.” Since 2015, the Response Project has performed new works responding to Karl Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie, Bob Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, the phrase “On Behalf,” the deep listening meditations of Pauline Oliveros, and more.

The Response Project's newest installment, TREMOR, is presented in partnership with concert:nova; Visionaries + Voices, an organization supporting Cincinnati artists with disabilities; and the International Essential Tremor Foundation. The program explores “perceptions of ability/disability, personal expression in the face of misunderstanding, and belonging in a world ill-equipped to welcome.”

“It’s my way of taking control of the narrative, claiming [my essential tremor] as part of my identity while also saying that it is not a flaw in my artistry, but in fact, at the heart of it,” says Matzke.

Matzke selected each of the eleven composers and artists who are featured in TREMOR. “I wanted to have a wide range of artistic and personal standpoints represented in the responses,” she says. “Many of the artists identify as having a disability, but not all of them. Some of the artists have just done work that explores themes of authenticity, or being misunderstood.”

Featured image at the top: The keys of a piano.