Older new music. Or, newer old music. As standard rep.

Groundwave presents Kathryn Woodard, Sat., Oct. 18 at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 7th Ave. (Lincoln Pl.), Brooklyn, 646-483-9091

Over a drink with a pianist/musicologist friend, I was shaken out of my New York City musical haze as I talked excitedly about a recent interview I had worked on for NewMusicBox.org, the web magazine from the American Music Center, with LaMonte Young. The four-hour interview was anchored around his masterpiece, The Well-Tuned Piano. Although in my mind, this work is one of the most important pieces of the piano repertoire, my enthusiasm was met with a polite yet blank look.

So when Kathryn Woodard, a New York-based pianist and contemporary music specialist, described her upcoming recital program as containing some standard rep?"Schubert, Debussy, Rzewski"?my ears perked up. Rzewski? Standard rep? Frederic Rzewski's name has been synonymous with the avant-garde since the 1960s, when he was a founding member of the legendary noisemakers Musica Elettronica Viva. The piece that Woodard has included on her program, Down by the Riverside, is part of North American Ballads, politically motivated works based on anthems from the labor, civil rights and peace movements, composed from 1978-79.

"How can you call a piece from 1979 new music?" Woodard responded when I showed surprise at her inclusion of Rzewski as standard rep. And when you compare this work to the four pieces by emerging composers also on the program, one of which was written specifically for this concert, her argument strengthens. Rzewski is an elder statesman of the music community, and his music deserves to be pressed into the history books rather than floundering in the uncertainty of the cutting-edge.

Certainly, a recent seven-disc release on Nonesuch, Rzewski Plays Rzewski, confirmed the pianist/composer's status as a formidable voice amongst living composers, and Woodard's viewpoint offers evidence that this transformation is indeed underway.

This concert, presented by the New York City composer and performer collective Groundwave, aspires to more than just challenging definitions of standard repertoire. Like many of her previous recitals, Woodard has carefully curated a program that connects America's (and more specifically Brooklyn's) newest composers with the weighty past of Western classical music. In order to really draw clear relationships between the past and present, Woodard limited her choices to works written for only the 88 keys of the piano in equal temperament. As alternate tunings and electronic manipulations have become commonplace for new piano music, Woodard aims to show that composers have yet to exhaust the possibilities of the standard piano.

The Schubert Woodard chose is the third of his Impromptus from 1827. Characterized by Schubert's trademark melodies, the Impromptu in g-flat major epitomizes the syrupy beauty of early romanticism. Groundwave founder Alan Sentman's Three Short Pieces for Piano plays with similar romantic ideas, tinged with aspects of American minimalism, adding another dimension to Schubert's ceaseless melodic waves. The inclusion of Uzbeki composer Aziza Sadikova points to Woodard's scholarship on Central Asian music (she was a consultant for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project). Sadikova's Suite for Piano explores traditional formats such as the waltz, tango and minuet, focusing primarily on form and estheticism.

Throwing Debussy's water-inspired Poissons D'Or (1908) into the mix demonstrates the deconstruction of melody that informed impressionist music from the turn of the 20th century, and brand-new pieces by Paul Hogan, currently pursuing his doctorate in composition in New York City, offer 21st-century takes on the shimmering soundscapes that Debussy made famous. Although Hogan is largely unplugged for this concert, the expansion of his musical language is apparent.

While such a smorgasbord of music may raise a few eyebrows, fear not. Woodard's impeccable technique, profound musicality and natural flair for teaching tie the program neatly together.