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Classic Series

PIANOS FANTASTIQUES

Saturday
Sep 16, 2023

7:30PM

Alberta Bair Theater

2801 Third Ave. N.

$20 - $69

Greg Anderson & Elizabeth Joy Roe, piano

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) | Roman Carnival Overture
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Piano Concerto No. 10 for Two Pianos
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) | Fountains of Rome
Georges Bizet (1838–1875) arr. Greg Anderson | Carmen Fantasy

Anderson and Roe are revolutionizing the piano duo experience for the 21stcentury. Hailed as “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “rockstars of the classical music world” (Miami Herald), the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo has appeared on PBS and MTV, recorded Billboard chart-topping albums, toured worldwide as recitalists and orchestral soloists, and released Emmy-nominated, self-produced music videos viewed by millions.

  • No matter what your background is in classical music—you can be an aficionado or you could be a total amateur—hopefully you'll find something in their concerts or music videos or compositions that will resonate.
  • They believe that music can be a very potent form of communication and of synthesizing what's happening in the world. It's a way of tapping into this shared humanity.
BSO season opener thrills crowd with colorful performance JACI WEBB Outlook Editor Sep 19, 2023

Sample Videos of Program selections

Guest artists

Greg Anderson | Pianist

In pursuit of his mission to make classical music a relevant and powerful force in society, Greg Anderson has developed a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, and filmmaker. Today Greg is an internationally renowned concert pianist with live tours reaching four continents and 24 countries, 30+ million music video views, daily radio plays, and over a thousand performances of his compositions every year. His intuitively creative approach and ability to connect with the next generation have attracted the attention of such media outlets as PBS, MTV, the BBC, and the Today Show. He is profiled in Nick Romeo’s Driven, David Cutler’s The Savvy Musician, and Adrian Daub’s Four-Handed Monsters, and he has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and A Prairie Home Companion, as well as Pianist, Gramophone, and Listen magazines.

 

Greg’s compositions and arrangements offer an additional outlet for his mission. His 100+ works are featured on the Universal, Sony, EMI, and Steinway record labels and are frequently performed by concert pianists, major orchestras, and amateurs alike. His scores reinvent popular classics, explore new pianistic techniques, and engender joyfulness and togetherness in music-making. Piano teachers regularly assign his music to students, and thousands of pianists have uploaded their performances to YouTube. As the Northwest Reverb argued, his music makes “a strong case that playing piano is the most fun thing that two people could ever do together.” Greg’s works are published by Alfred Music on the “Anderson & Roe Duos & Duets Series” and his own publishing company, Awkward Fermata Press.

 

Greg received his Doctorate and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where one of his performances was handpicked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary. Greg is a Steinway artist.

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Elizabeth Joy Roe | Pianist

A Chicago native, Elizabeth was 13 years old when she won the grand prize at the IBLA International Piano Competition in Italy. Throughout her career she has received honors from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Music for Youth Foundation, and the National Association for Professional Asian Women. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student, graduating with Scholastic Distinction for her thesis on representations of music in the fiction of Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, and E.M. Forster. A Steinway Artist and Soros Fellow, Elizabeth’s mission is to connect with others through the inspiration, joy and essential humanity of music.
Elizabeth’s multifaceted career includes performance broadcasts on the BBC, KBS, NPR, and PBS; new music premieres; and a diverse range of artistic projects and collaborations. A recording artist for Decca Classics, she has recorded the complete Nocturnes by John Field in one of 2016’s most noteworthy releases, and her previous album was a critically acclaimed coupling of the Britten and Barber Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Emil Tabakov.
Elizabeth has been hailed “brilliant” (The New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (The Chicago Tribune), “impressive” (BBC Radio), “incisive, lyrical and tender” (BBC Music Magazine), “sublime” (Classical Ear), “a mature, fascinating interpreter and an artist of intelligence, insight, and a genuine grace” (The Southampton Press), and “electrifying” (The Dallas Morning News), and she was named one of the classical music world's “Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch” by Symphony Magazine.

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