June 20 & 21 - Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival

This piano festival, run by Paul Pollei, was awesome. The facilities, instruments, and administration were what every concert pianist dreams of. The concert series encouraged creative thinking and was willing to cater to the whims of whatever the pianists could envision. Liz and I enjoyed great lighting, working microphones, and a hearty and responsive audience. As a result, we were able to focus on our performances, which went pleasingly well.

Some musical highlights:
*The Cat's Fugue (a brand new piece that I composed for the event - I was surprised by how much I liked the composition ... we'll be playing that again ...)
*The 9th through the 16th minute of "The Rite of Spring." I was definitely on a musical high, unaware of anything else but the awesomeness of the music.
*The "Turtle Staying Alive," the "Cuckoo in Sussex," and "Jackasses." These movements from our New Depiction of the Zoological Fantasy were performed to my liking and received with great enthusiasm by our audience.

Since I'm supposed to be reviewing my performances, I will be honest and confess that I ran out of steam during our "Flair and Fury" concert on the 21st. While we managed to make it through the excitement of our Blue Danube walzes, I just couldn't barrel to the end with my usual gusto. Thankfully, after the non-stop virtuosity of that concert, our audience was forgiving. :-)

If you attended any of the concerts, what were your favorite moments? Least favorite moments?

June 12 - PS 131Q elemetary school performances

Visit the Anderson & Roe blog, "Where Soloists Fear to Tread," to get the scoop.

March 30 - New Music by Yale Faculty Members

Greg Anderson, Ezra Laderman, David Kaplan

Tonight David Kaplan and I performed Ezra Laderman's fiendishly difficult "Interior Landscapes" for Two Pianos. I managed to put the piano completely out of tune a mere minute into the performance, which yielded some frustrations later in the piece. Regardless, it was a solid performance. Perhaps next time we play the work I'll feel comfortable to sit back and enjoy myself a little more! :-)

December 14-17 - Yale University - Piano Duo Filming

Although these performances were not necessarily "live in concert," they were filmed for eventual viewing on our websites and YouTube. With any luck, they will be edited and on the web by February!

Liz (my piano duo partner) joined me in New Haven, and we spent four jam-packed days filming in various locations around Yale University. 17 minutes of music netted over six cassette tapes of footage and two very exhausted pianists. Much like a recording session, filming sessions can be extremely demanding. In a live performance, you play the piece once; extreme focus and concentration are required, but I find that can I feed off the energy of the audience. With a recording, you've got to recreated the energy of a live performance without the audience there - it's sometimes very difficult to do! Plus, you've got to run through the piece over and over again to get a good take! With a video recording, you've got to recreate the energy of a live setting, perform it repeatedly for a good take, *and* do it over and over again from different angles!

That's not to say we didn't have a good time! Half of the time, our exhaustion wasn't the result of the demanding nature of filming, but the result of laughing too hard for too long. It's quite possible these videos will "cross the line," and filming anything anywhere near that "line" is simply comical for Liz and I. Accordingly, we've decided to create a couple "out-take reels" to show the joy inherent in over-the-top four-hand performance.