20th Century (1968). As a booster of contemporary music, it has always been my personal credo to premiere a composition at my concerts. When the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (NYC) asked me to perform a series of outreach recitals throughout NewYork State I immediately thought to ask Richard Lane to write a piece for these programs. Richard was deeply committed to music education and to compose for specific occasions. I was delighted that he accepted to write this Sonata. An integral aspect of the Sonata is the inclusion of American Folk Songs in every movement of the work (their titles are written above these sequences). Therefore, I really had to be on my toes when playing the Sonata since many of the musical material could already be known by the audience and be on familiar terms with most of it. -Jerome Bunke, January 2010, New York, USA.