Keyboard Music
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A Calendar Set (1972-1978)
12 Virtuosic Preludes for solo piano  (26:40)

Publisher: Jabez Press, Ft. Worth, TX [www.jabezpress.com]
** Winner,  2005  American Composers Invitational Competition.
First Performance: New York City, March 1979
Others: Around the world; also broadcast on Voice of America
"Exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing."  - THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Twelve preludes written for (and during) the twelve months, emerges as a colorful and even witty set of miniatures."  - THE DETROIT NEWS
"A nicely varied collection of diverse musical moods and images, each suggested by a particular month of the year. The piano writing is masterfully fluent and virtuosic, [with] satisfying, expressive variety...moods and emotions range from delicate reflection through joyful exuberance. With some exposure a collection like this could have a wide range of applicability for piano recitals of many degrees of sophistication, and could win easy acceptance."  - FANFARE
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American City - Portrait of New York (1958; 2010)
Suite for solo piano  - Zaimont’s first extended composition, updated   (15:00)

1. Rush Hour           2. Harbor Fog
3. Coffee House     4. Central Park
5. ‘Scrapers             6. Garment Factory

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
* First Prize national award from  National Federation of Music Clubs (original version)
"American City: Portrait of New York is a group of six short pieces that purport to evoke various images associated with New York City. What is most striking and remarkable about them is that five of the six were composed in 1957—when Zaimont was 12! If the prospective listener anticipates being called upon to indulge the composer’s shameless vanity, that listener is entirely wrong. These are mature, sophisticated, entertaining, and pianistically challenging vignettes…."  - Walter Simmons, FANFARE
Attars (2017) 
For solo piano  (7:24)
 
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
*Commissioned as the required work for 2017 American Pianists Association classical competition.
First performances: 5 premieres by the five finalists of 2017 APA competition
 "The  composer's imaginative rendering of something difficult to translate from olfactory to auditory reality — the five essential oils —makes up a seven-minute piece that enthralled each time it was performed….  " A prismatic perspective  on a new work."   - Jay Harvey UPSTAGE (online)
Black-Velvet Waltz (1983)
For solo piano (4:30)

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
First Performance: Sacramento, California 1989
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Calendar Collection (1976)
12 preludes for the developing pianist (14:40)

Publisher: Vivace Press
* Chosen for 1990 and 1993 repertoire lists for the National Federation of Music Clubs
First Performance: March 1977       Others: Around the world
"Uncommonly attractive music."   - FANFARE
"Superb. . . . Each piece is totally different, and Zaimont has a personal musical language that is instantly accessible, but intriguing in its complexity."  - WOMEN OF NOTE Quarterly
"Twelve programmatic sketches, one for each month of the year: They are delightful."  - PAN PIPES (SAI)
"A Calendar Set, which occupied the composer on and off throughout the 1970s, and was her first extended work for piano….  These subjective associations create an attractive, evocative, and convincing conceit."   - Simmons, FANFARE
CONCERTO for Piano and Wind Orchestra ‘Solar Traveller’ (2009) 
*Commissioned by eight USA wind ensembles 
(see also Wind Ensemble category)  (30:00)   
1. Outward Bound 
2. Nocturne (Lunar)  
3. Ad astra per aspera 

Publisher: Subito Music Corporation
First Performance: Timothy Hoff and Peabody University Wind Ensemble
Others: Slippery Rock University, University of Southern Mississippi, Eastman Wind Ensemble,University of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Louisiana State University                                                                                                                               

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Cortège for Jack 
For solo piano  (3:20)
   
*Composed in memory of  Jack Beeson, Zaimont's teacher at Columbia University.
Publisher: Subito Music Corporation
First Performance:  Elizabeth Moak, piano
University of Southern Mississippi,  October 2010
"Stark and powerful"   - Distler, GRAMOPHONE
The Croquet Game - Complete Chaos!  (2015)
For solo piano (3:00)
 
*Commissioned by Stanley Wong for a composite music and art  project traveling throughout China to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland.
First performance:  Hong Kong.  Several Others.
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'Hesitation' Rag (1998)
For solo piano  (5:40
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
*Commissioned by Virginia Eskin
"Her piano rags serve up fresh harmonic ideas within the genre's strict rhythmic precepts."  
                - Distler, GRAMOPHONE
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Hitchin’ - a travellin’ groove  (2007)
For solo piano  (5:00)

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.  
*Commissioned by Nicola Melville for her Contemporary Music Project
First Performance: Nicola Melville, Carleton College and tour summer 2007
I Seek the Lord  (1992)
For organ solo  (4:00)

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
First Performance: Agnes Scott College, April 1995
Others: New York City
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Impronta Digitale (1999) 
For piano solo (8:00)
* Honored composition in 2001 American Invitational composers competition of the Cliburn Competition

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
First Performances: By semi-finalists at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition, Fort Worth, TX. 5 premieres
Others: around the world
"An eight-minute tangle of notes, a vibrant, exciting piece, almost a moto perpetuo, with occasional tonal leanings amid its blazes of color and dynamism."  - CLAVIER
"A stunning torrent of notes and chords."  - DALLAS MORNING NEWS
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In My Lunchbox – Suite for Developing Pianists (2003)   
* 2003 Commission from the Music Teachers Association of California (12:30 )

1: Swimming Tuna (Arabesque)
2: Celery Stalks!
3: The Banana Song (A Whistlin’ Tune) (Variations)
4: Mandarin Orange
5: Sugar RUSH! (Rondo)
Publisher: Vivace Press
First Performances: Four premieres at annual convention of Music Teachers Association of California, July 2003.     Others: Now on repertoire lists, MTAC and other state music organizations.
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 Jupiter's Moons (2000)    
For solo piano    (19:00)

I: The Moons swim in orbit
II: Europa
III: Leda
V: Io
V: Ganymede
VI: Callisto
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
* Millennium Commission from Focus on Piano Literature 2000
First Performance: Focus on Piano Literature 2000, University of North Carolina - Greensboro, Paul Stewart. 
Others: Around the world
"The real highlight, however, is Zaimont's harmonically fascinating suite, Jupiter's Moons from 2000…. The six movements, each named after satellites of the largest planet in our solar system, offer spacious utterances filling the entire range of the keyboard which occasionally hint at post-minimalism and at other times head into more otherworldly non-metered terrain." 
- Frank Oteri, NewMusicBox
"Jupiter’s Moons is a group of six short pieces, composed in 2000. Each of the pieces draws upon both mythological and geophysical associations from which to anchor its character... Each  piece is both evocative and engaging, and as a group they are delightful."  -  Walter Simmons, FANFARE
Nocturne: La Fin de Siècle (1978)
For solo piano     (7: 40)

Publisher: Galaxy Music Corporation (E.C. Schirmer)
*Chosen for repertoire list for 1988 General Motors/Seventeen Magazine Competition
First Performance: New York City, March 1979
Others: Around the world
"Nocturne, a 'valentine' to composer-pianists of the Gilded Age, is full-bodied and voluptuous."  - STEREO REVIEW
"A beautiful and original evocation of the romantic nocturne." 
- THE PIANO QUARTERLY
"A distinguished and highly effective work."  - NOTES
"A superb and often beautiful work."  - FANFARE
"Evokes the harmonic language of an earlier time effectively brought up to date through the use of complex rhythms and occasionally biting dissonances."  - ST.LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT
"This contemporary character piece will be effective for recital and competition performances."  - CLAVIER
The Pure Impure - Three Abstracts for Piano  (2015)
 
1:  Rothko
2:  Reinhardt
3:  Avery
 
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
   •Three contrasting movements prompted by appreciation for the paintings of three mid-20th-century American abstract masters: Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, and Milton Avery.   Each movement conveys some of each artist’s sensibility, referencing his iconic works and the self-deployed discipline each artist adopted  - a fine-ness of craft, and high expressiveness within a set of clear givens.
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Serenade  ( 2006 )
For solo piano  (5:50)

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
First Performance: J L Zaimont,  Berekely CA  November 2006.   Others: Around the world
“Serenade is especially lovely — lyrical, melancholy, with elegiac harmonies.”  - ALL MUSIC GUIDE Sept. 2007.
“… an intriguing piece of real, if mysterious, charm.” 
- Music Web INTERNATIONAL December 2007.
Scherzo (1969)
For solo piano (7:00)

Publisher: withdrawn
First Performance: Columbia University, May 1969
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Snazzy Sonata (1972)   
For piano four-hands (18:00)

"Moderate Two-Step"
"Lazy Beguine"
"Be-Bop Scherzo"
 "Valse Brilliante"
Publisher: Vivace Press
* Winner of  a Delius Competition Prize
First Performance: Radio Station WQXR (New York), June 1972
Others: Jacksonville State University; CAMI Hall, New York City; Queens College; California Music Teachers Association; San Francisco Conservatory; around the world
“New music that will have a definite appeal...[Zaimont captures the spirit of the rag with toe-tapping rhythms and musical flavors...”
  - Lance Hill, CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE ~ June 2007
Solitary Pipes (1977)
For solo piano (1'30")
Yorktown Music Press (in The Joy of Modern Piano Pieces)
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SONATA for Piano Solo (1999)  

I: Ricerca
II: Canto
III: Impronta Digitale
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
* Cited as the emblem work for 1999 on the CENTURY LIST, Piano & Keyboard Magazine
First Performance: Bradford Gowan - Phillips Gallery, Washington DC - May 2000
Others: 11th Van Cliburn International Competition; around the world
" Sonata, a massive three-movement opus that runs nearly 30 minutes and maintains a fierce level of energy throughout. Once or twice the piece threatens to be pulled apart by its sheer centrifugal force, but the cogency and clarity of Zaimont’s writing—especially in the torrentially virtuosic finale—keep things on track." 
- Joshua  Kosman, SAN FRANCSICO CHRONICLE
"Abounds with substance and authority. The opening ‘Ricerca’ movement features lithe, quicksilver contrapuntal writing and stern, granitic blocks of chords, while the central ‘Canto’ goes back and forth between rhapsodic flurries and expansive, tuneful melodies…. The finale, ‘Impronta digitale’, is a relentless yet texturally varied toccata, featuring long single lines that dart up and down the keyboard."   - Jed Distler, GRAMOPHONE
"...A vibrant, exciting piece..."  - CLAVIER
" The sonata…is quite the ferocious, fascinating beast."  - Stephen Estep, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
"A challenging and provocative work." 
- Simmons, FANFARE
Stone (1981)
For piano keyboard and piano strings (16:00)

Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
First Performance: Clinton Adams, Peabody Conservatory, November 1984
Others: New York University; Columbia, S. C.; Polaris Ensemble (Baltimore, MD)
Suite Impressions (1994)  
For solo piano (9:00)
Folk Song
Jazz Waltz
Pop Song

Publisher: Vivace Press
Performances: Around the world
" Jazz Waltz is a short movement from a 1996 work called Suite Impressions .
It is a pleasantly stylish piece, inventive both melodically and harmonically."  - Walter Simmons, FANFARE
Toccata (1969)
For solo piano (4:00)

Publisher: withdrawn
First Performance: Columbia University, May 1969
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Two Piano Rags: "Reflective Rag", "Judy's Rag" (1974)
For solo piano (8:30)
Publisher: Vivace Press
First Performance: February 1975    Others: Around the world
"Noteworthy are two elegiac rags by the contemporary composer Judith Lang Zaimont, which prove there's life in the old genre yet."  - TIME Magazine
“A great musical romp, taking ragtime patterns through a variety of tempos.”  - Jack Rummel, RAGTIMERS.ORG ~ June 2007
"Judy's Rag sustains the quality of that remarkable second side, with its dreamily Brahmsy Neapolitans. I'd almost put it at the top of its special little genre. . .   This is a disc I'll treasure."  - Richard Taruskin in OPUS Magazine
“[Reflective Rag] is wistful, lyrical - a beautiful remembrance of ragtime that moves me”  - AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE ~ November  2007
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WIZARDS – Three Magic Masters (2003)   
For solo piano (8:30)

Spell CASTER (Rhetorical)
Spell WEAVER (Lyric)
Magister – SORCEROR (Energetic)
Publisher: Subito Music Corp.
* Commissioned for San Antonio International Piano Competition - required work for 2003 competition.
Also on repertoire list for 2012 William Kappell Competition
First Performance: 12 premieres 2003 at San Antonio International Piano Competition
Others: Around the world
“Although written as a performance piece for a competition, the diverse and poetic textures of the composition – rich yet transparent – are quite beautiful and showed the pianist’s technical mastery of dynamics and phrasing on the modern instrument, with a passionate intensity radiating from the pieces emotive wizardry, with its three sections diverse yet united.”   - Mark Greenfest,  Soundwordsight  March 2012
“In the mysterious Wizards -- Three Magic Masters (2003),  Zaimont’s  ideas are most cogently and completely expressed in rich harmonies and crystalline rhythms.”  -  ALL MUSIC  GUIDE
 “A fine example of today's trend toward a return to recognizable tonality in modern composition,  focusing on the dynamic lyricism inherent in fine modern music.”   - Richard Storm,  Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 2012
“The  music fuses passion and consideration, and appeals  simultaneously  to mind and heart. From the opening, largely chordal section, to the arpeggios of its central section and the furious hammer-blows of the third, Wizards has a persuasive logic – both structural and emotional.”   - MusicWeb  INTERNATIONAL  
Keyboard Cousins  -  Suite for Young Pianists   (in progress)

"The Harp"
"The Guitar"
"The Cymbalom"
"The Celeste"
"The Organ"
"The Harpsichord"