(PRLEAP.COM) Ivan Ilic, an American pianist based in Paris, will premiere an exciting new work written for him by John L. King.

Ilic commissioned King’s "Piano Sonata" in June and will premiere the piece on Wednesday, October 18th at 8pm. The concert will be held at the Town House in Inverness Scotland; the Inverness Chamber Music Society is sponsoring the event.

Ilic and King met during their undergraduate studies at U.C. Berkeley, where they both studied mathematics and music. They also both studied improvisation with the world-renowned saxophone player Steve Coleman before graduating in 2001 and moving abroad. King recalls: “Coleman’s expectations for a ’serious’ musician profoundly shook me up.”

King has since finished graduate studies in music composition from the University of Manchester, while Ilic has pursued an active international career after graduating from the Conservatoire in Paris. The two California natives, although still in their twenties, are making their mark on the European classical music scene. Ilic remarks: "This is the first of several projects we have in mind."

The idea for the commission was spurred by Ilic’s feeling that much of the modern repertoire for piano is ill-adapted to the instrument. "There is a wealth of fantastic piano music written before World War Two, but many of the pieces written since then are ugly and tedious. The music doesn’t take advantage of the exceptional qualities that characterize the modern piano."

"There’s been a tendency to use the piano to make dogmatic intellectual statements, rather that trying to write music people really want to listen to. Composers today are rarely performers and it shows in their piano music: it’s often unnecessarily awkward and tends not to work well in traditional concert settings. John’s Sonata on the other hand, makes perfect sense in the context of a traditional piano recital."

Ilic also appreciates that King "tailors his writing to the performer." King says he takes into account "not just the performer’s technique" but his or her "personal outlook." King enjoys the collaborative aspect of the project, and admits that "there’s been lots of give and take."