Portland Piano Virtual Extravaganza!

Back in March, right before the world turned upside down, we were eagerly looking forward to performing in Portland (one of our favorite cities!). The concerts were postponed, as were the remainder of our 2020 live events, and we found ourselves isolated apart, mulling over how we could best continue our mission to make classical music a relevant and powerful force in society. Since the lockdown began, we edited and released new music videos that speak to our time (including our Hallelujah Variations), appeared on various virtual panels, and connected with our fans via our weekly Facebook Live show #TwoPianoTuesdays (Tuesdays at 6pm EDT).

But when Portland Piano International asked us to present two virtual performances this August, we took a deep breath and wondered whether such a thing were possible or even worthwhile, especially when we already have dozens of previously prepared music videos that audiences can watch on their own time. We asked ourselves, “How can we recreate everything we love about live performance, but in a virtual world?” It wouldn’t be worth the trouble without a strong sense of community, the thrill of risk taking, and a profound connection with humanity.

We faced further challenges knowing the two of us couldn’t perform together in person. Typically we’re at each other’s side during our jam-packed touring careers, though we *technically* reside on opposite coasts. Now with changing travel/lockdown situations and Greg's regular exposure to the virus (his husband is an ER doctor working hard on the frontlines), we decided it would be safest to isolate in our respective homes over 2,500 miles apart.

Nevertheless, Portland Piano’s proposal kicked our creativity and inspiration into high gear, and our brainstorming sessions were flooded with exciting new ideas! We’ve spent the past several weeks devising, organizing, and preparing, and we’re finally ready to announce our Virtual Piano Extravaganza, set for August 15 & 16.

We are resolved to make these virtual events feel impactful and relevant to our times, surprising, highly interactive, and lovingly tailored to the city of Portland. Our goal is to capture the in-the-moment essence of live performance and provide a valuable opportunity for music-lovers, both locally and around the world, to connect with each other and the joy of piano music. Featuring multiple world premieres of new compositions and music videos, each concert will invite key participation from members of the Portland Piano community and our global fanbase.

We’ve planned question & answer sessions, trivia competitions (with prizes!), and curated commentary in addition to nearly a dozen new music videos, five new Anderson & Roe arrangements, and live performances of solo and duo music. Look forward to a cosmic performance of Gerd Kühr’s “Corona Meditation” featuring dozens of local Portland pianists, our new multi-piano fantasy based on Balakirev’s Islamey (you can help us pick the title!), the winner of our youth competition featured in a wild and funky three-piano music video, piano works of Satie’s narrated by Portland thespians and luminaries, debriefs with Performance Today’s Fred Child, and much more.

But these events need YOU! See how you can participate in the festivities and learn more about the programs here. It’ll be a classical piano experience like you’ve never seen before. We can’t wait to see you there!

UPDATE: Use our discount code “lizandgreg2020” for 20% off your tickets. 🤩🎹🎉

Group Meditation ☮️

We were approached recently by our friends at Graz’s Styriarte Music Festival to participate in the world premiere of Gerd Kühr’s “Corona Meditation.” The highly reflective piece is designed to be performed by any number of pianists meditating at once, creating “an effect of expansion similar to the expansion of the cosmos.” Our stars aligned and the first performance took place on April 30th 2020, 20:20 p.m.

It was a truly wonderful experience. We’re beyond grateful to have shared that cosmic musical moment and thrilled to be able to share it with you!

Brahms Double Concerto Premiere

During our visit to beautiful, snowy Santa Fe this past Christmas Eve, we were excited to premiere a work that has been years in the making: Brahms' Double Concerto in our arrangement for two pianos and orchestra. We were fortunate to perform the work with the Performance Santa Fe Symphony under the direction of maestro Joseph Illick, whose boundless positivity and supreme flexibility made the premiere a joyous success. 

Brahms often struggled with instrumentation when composing. For example, he morphed his string quintet into a two piano sonata before finally settling on its final form: a piano quintet. Similarly, the first piano concerto began as a sonata for piano, four hands. But regardless of his music's instrumentation, one gets the sense that he conceived at the piano, especially given how many of his works he ultimately arranged for piano duo and duet. In fact, Brahms arranged nearly every piece he wrote for the genre — see Christian Köhn and Silke-Thora Matthies’s complete 18-disc set of Brahms' piano duo music for evidence. 

With the Double Concerto, the solo violin and cello lines translated themselves idiomatically to the piano. We were further delighted by the number of similarities between this concerto and his two solo piano concertos, which we ultimately highlighted in the arrangement itself. The pieces feels as if we're performing a big, Romantic Brahms piano concerto, but with the added dialogue of a double concerto. And suitably, the piece's biographical subtext remains firmly in place (the piece was composed as something of a reconciliation plea to violinist Joseph Joachim); the piece now serves as a universal statement of pain, forgiveness, and friendship.

“In this committed unveiling, it came across as an effective concert work, a useful addition to the regrettably small repertoire of concertos for two pianos and orchestra.”

— Santa Fe New Mexican

Cabaret at The Rep

It's Greg here, commenting on our latest concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - an awesome cabaret-style event with an awesome audience! We were so fortunate to premiere our new depiction of Saint-Saens' zoological fantasy in a theatrical setting populated with joyous listeners.

Our latest composition is a completely new take on Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals. This is not the Carnival of the Animals you heard in your third grade music class, even though it's based on some of the familiar melodies from the original score (in addition to a whole lot more). The piece attempts to go beyond a simple musical depiction of animals; in fact, it has more to say about humans than anything else...

The premiere went remarkably well, considering the rush to compose and prepare it in time. Yes, there were a few lost notes here and there, but we compensated with our characteristic first-performance adrenaline and spontaneity. I am, nonetheless, quite embarrassed to confess that I completely lost it when Liz began speaking in a pseudo-European accent during the text to "Homo pianisticus!" "Keep a straight face, Greg! Keep a straight face!"

If we learned one thing performing at The Rep in Milwaukee, however, it was this: don't let your audience select and arrange a portion of your program for you. In theory, it was a great idea – it allowed audience members to interact with us and it gave them a say in the shape and content of the program. But in practice, the results can be downright merciless to the performers!

Audience members were given a ballot to fill out during the first half of the concert.

"Please vote for three of the following works. The three or four pieces to receive the highest number of votes will be performed by the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo during the second half of the program."

What did the audience choose? The fastest, most technically challenging pieces on the list! Do we blame them? Of course not! Is it physically possible to follow the first impression from our Star Wars Fantasy with the "Dance of the Earth" from The Rite of Spring and our arrangement of Piazzolla's Libertango? Well, barely!

Regardless, the "Audience Votes" section of our concert kept us on our toes, and we were sure to conclude the concert with an unhurried encore.

If you were in attendance, let us know what you thought!