Composer Michael Hersch will launch a season of premieres with a full evening devoted to his music on October 18 at New York's Merkin Hall, featuring Hersch performing in the world premiere of From The Vanishing Pavilions for solo piano. The work is an arrangement drawn from Hersch's critically acclaimed two-hour work for the instrument, The Vanishing Pavilions. The Merkin concert will also include the New York premiere of After Hölderlin's "Hälfte des Lebens" for viola and cello. Other major premieres during the 2011-12 season include Hersch's new song cycle on texts by Thomas Hardy, Domicilium, in Nashville in January, with baritone Thomas Hampson. In March, the Cleveland Orchestra will present the world premiere of Hersch'sconcerto for trumpet, Night Pieces. The Blair String Quartet will debut Hersch's first string quartet, Images from a Closed Ward, in Nashville in February, with the New York premiere to follow at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in April. In May, pianist Shai Wosner joins Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony for the world premiere of along the ravines, the composer's second piano concerto.