[4] The composer Ned Rorem and the pianist Gary Graffman first became acquainted as students at the Curtis Institute of Music.
They remained friends for many decades since—which was furthered by Graffman's 1986 appointment as director of the Curtis Institute of Music, where Rorem had been on faculty for six years.
Graffman, who had an ailment preventing the use of two fingers in his right hand, thus came to Rorem when the Institute decided to commission a new left-handed piano concerto.
The work is scored for a solo pianist (left hand only) and an orchestra comprising two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, three percussionists, celesta, harp, and strings.
A year after the world premiere, James R. Oestreich of The New York Times said the work "seems to grow in stature with each hearing.