house on fire

House on Fire is a new music ensemble consisting of Wells Leng, Richard An, and Andrew Anderson. Though centered around their shared focus as pianists, each member’s multi-instrumentalism allows for expanded repertoire including cello, percussion, toy piano and other keyboard instruments. 

Close friends since their time at the California Institute of the Arts, the group was formally introduced in late 2020, and is dedicated to the performance of new and experimental music, as well as the work of Southern California composers, championing the music of its own members and close collaborators. 

We get along like a house on fire.

richard an

RICHARD AN (b.1995) is a composer and performer, born and raised in Los Angeles. Richard’s primary amibitions as a performer lie in interpretations of modern and contemporary music, and has performed music by Christopher Cerrone, Tristan Perich, Andrew McIntosh, Natacha Diels, Du Yun and Raven Chacon, Caroline Shaw, Oyvind Torvund, Sofia Gubaidulina, Julius Eastman, Steve Reich, Jurg Frey, Joan Tower, Stephen Hartke, Zhou Long, Tom Johnson, Beat Furrer, Eve Beglarian, George Crumb, Luciano Berio, Lucky Mosko, Toru Takemitsu, Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and more. Richard performs with stickytack (a piano+ duo), house on fire (a new music trio) and quartet friends (a 2pno 2perc quartet), and has performed with Monday Evening Concerts’ Echoi Ensemble and The Industry. Richard plays piano and percussion, and has been known to sing, conduct, and teach. Richard’s music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Calder Quartet, members of Yarn/Wire, HOCKET, Resound Duo, Great Noise Ensemble, and more. Richard has a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Southern California and a Master of Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts. He plays taiko and tabla, and makes YouTube videos.

richardanmusic.com

andrew anderson

Andrew Anderson is a musician deeply invested in the performance of classical and contemporary music, in both solo and collaborative settings. He has worked with many established composers, including Donnacha Dennehy, Eve Beglarian, Lukas Ligeti, Courtney Bryan, and as well as with Pulitzer Prize finalist Ted Hearne in preparation for the LA Phil premiere of his oratorio PLACE. He has also commissioned works by up-and-coming composers such as Wells Leng, Richard An, and Matt Sargent. As a performer, he has had the great opportunity to perform at such venues REDCAT, the Carlsbad Music Festival. and the Walt Disney Hall as part of the 2019 Fluxus Festival. Andrew attended the University of California, Irvine (BMus, 2017) and at the California Institute of the Arts (MFA, 2019), where he was recipient of the Fletcher Jones Foundation and Dumont Scholarships. His primary teachers have been Nina Scolnik and Vicki Ray. Currently on staff at Moorpark College, Andrew also works across Southern California as a free-lance musician and piano technician in training. Other interests include exploring extended just-intonation systems for the piano, from both a performance and technical-tuning aspect.

andrewandersonpiano.com

wells leng

Wells Leng (1994-) is a performer/composer/improviser based in Los Angeles. Having graduated from USC with a BM in Composition and a BA in Piano Performance and CalArts with an MFA in the Performer-Composer program, they have studied composition with Donald Crockett, Brian Head, Andrew Norman, Frank Ticheli, Andrew McIntosh, and Nicholas Deyoe; piano with Antoinette Perry and Vicki Ray; cello with Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick. As both a performer and composer, Wells has collaborated with many other artists all over the world. An active member of the LA taiko community, they have worked closely with prominent artists such as San Jose Taiko, Kris Bergstrom, Isaku Kageyama, Shoji Kameda, as well as other musicians specializing in Japanese music; Kozue Matsumoto and Rachel Rudich. Wells is part of House on Fire Trio, stickytack, and Quartet Friends. Aside from playing taiko, cello, and piano, they are also an amateur player of several other instruments. Wells is currently the collaborative keyboardist at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.

wellslengmusic.wordpress.com