| Keys To The City (orchestral work) | |
|---|---|
| by Tobias Picker | |
 Chromolithograph of the Brooklyn Bridge | |
| Genre | Modernist |
| Occasion | 100th Anniversary of The Brooklyn Bridge |
| Commissioned by | Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission |
| Composed | 1983 |
| Performed | May 24, 1983: Brooklyn Bridge |
| Movements | 1 |
Keys To The City is a one-movement orchestral concerto for piano and orchestra written by the American composer Tobias Picker for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial. [1]
Picker, at the time in his late twenties, received a commission from The Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission to compose a work for the bridge's centennial. [2] [3] To prepare, Picker said: [4]
I read Hart Crane and McCullough's "The Great Bridge." I studied its history. Visiting the bridge at different times of day and night, I observed its structure, its content and its context. I watched the light play through cables composed of billions of strands of streel. I listened from the foot bridge to the whine of the cars below. I studied paintings, poems, and songs which had been made in tribute to the bridge over the years. I even gave a champagne party for my friends on it one starry midnight. And I composed furiously.
Keys To The City premiered on May 24, 1983, at the Fulton Ferry Landing underneath Brooklyn Bridge. [5]
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