The prepared piano is not so much an instrument as a way of transforming the everyday into the extraordinary. By introducing various foreign bodies to the strings, the familiar concert grand becomes an exotic percussion orchestra—and a new resource for the imaginative composer.

Although Lisa Cay Miller is perhaps best known as an improviser, it’s the compositional side of her music that will be most prominently on display in Lessing Stories, at Pyatt Hall on Friday (October 21). In the first part of the program, Rachel Iwaasa and Dana Reason will join Miller for a selection of piano solos, duos, and trios; after intermission, Miller will play music inspired by the short stories of Doris Lessing, with narrator Peter Anderson contributing his voice. Expect a smart, literate, and beautifully strange evening of inventive sound.