Album Notes

In composer, Charlemagne Palestine’s loft in an old spice warehouse where the pungent smells of oregano and thyme drift through the air, Rain Worthington sits an impressive black Bösendorfer grand piano that stands alone in the middle of room. The audience of fellow downtown artists – composers, painters, writers, sculptors – gather closely together in the dark sitting on the old wooden plank boards around the grand piano. A large reel-to-reel tape recorder situated on the floor directly under the piano is turned on and Rain begins the first notes that weave together a haunting solo performance. This solo piano concert leads the listener on a soulful journey through a soundscape that is both minimal and lush, meditative and suspenseful.

Rain’s earliest memory of playing piano was when she was about three years old and living with her grandparents in West Virginia. Waking up before anyone in the house, she would tiptoe out to the old upright piano in the living room and begin to play softly on the keys. In her mid-twenties, Rain rediscovered her love of the piano. With no formal musical training, she began improvising on a turn-of-the-century Briggs upright bought at an antique store. Her early solo piano works were composed by exploring and improvising directly on the piano. The process was intuitive – introducing a phrase, repeating it until it "takes hold" as a constant rhythm, gradually replacing the memory of the previous one, while generating an anticipation for change through the intrinsic tension of insistent repetition, and then breaking into a new phrase or variation. She performed these solo piano works from memory in concerts at pioneering music venues in Soho and Tribeca that were part of the New York City downtown music scene of the late 1970’s.

Rain’s compositional style has been influenced by an artistic identification with world music, minimalism and romanticism. New music critic, Kyle Gann, writing about Rain’s chamber and orchestral music states:

“The rhythmically thoughtful works of Rain Worthington take ideas of American musical style to a new place – like a walk in a familiar, yet very different park.”
Kyle Gann, Chamber Music magazine

Rain now composes for full orchestra and chamber ensembles, as well as solo instruments. Two of her compositions for orchestra have been recorded for Volumes 11 & 12 of ERMMedia’s prestigious CD series, Masterworks of the New Era. Her music was the subject of an "American Composer" profile by Kyle Gann in Chamber Music magazine, August 2003. Conductor Petr Kotik premiered two of her orchestral works with the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble and her chamber music has been featured in contemporary music festival concerts.