"Two is Company" - A&R featured in Clavier Companion!

We're on the cover of this month's "Clavier Companion." The corresponding article is spot-on: Nick Romeo (the author) actually "gets" us, our mission, and our artistic pursuits, and he swirls it all together into a mighty read! Kudos to Nick!
 

We need batteries, duct tape, and a flashlight,” said Greg Anderson, a doctoral candidate in the piano department at Yale University. Greg and I were walking to a thrift store in downtown New Haven with Elizabeth Joy Roe, Greg’s friend and partner in the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo. “Are we going to be destroying anything in slow motion?” Liz asked, in a serious voice. “We can bring that lamp I don’t want,” Greg said. Arriving at the New Haven Salvation Army, they fanned out and searched the aisles for flared jeans, bell bottoms, tapered shirts with pointed collars, anything reminiscent of the 1970s. Greg found a marigold shirt with a brown floral pattern and a pointed collar that fit him perfectly. He made for the register. “I haven’t seen one of these in a long time,” the cashier said as he counted out change.

 

In a few hours, Greg and Liz were shooting footage for a music video of their two-piano paraphrase of the Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive.

... Greg and Liz take an iconoclastic pleasure in smashing through the stereotype of classical music as a tame and harmless anachronism. They want audiences to have powerful, visceral reactions to their music. After hearing their exuberantly virtuosic take on Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz at a concert in Oregon, one woman in the audience leapt to her feet and shouted “Now that’s a waltz!”

Read the entire article here.

"Blue Danube Fantasy" sheet music available

Awkward Fermata Press is up and running! The first of several planned sheet music publications is available on amazon.com. You can also order the score at your local music store!

Alternatively, you can purchase a .PDF file of the score on the scores page.

"Liz, my friend, is not my lover..."

Whaaaa?? 

I mean, "Billie Jean is not my lover." :-)

Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" provided Liz and me with endless amounts of fun. I know, I know; it sounds like a terrible idea on paper -- "Billie Jean" for a classical piano duo?!? My older brother suggested the idea in 2007, and I tossed it around for a few years before deciding to give it a go. I knew a direct transcription of the original would almost be disrespectful... nothing could ever fully recreate Michael Jackson's legendary performance. Instead, we decided to follow our own artistic path, using Jackson's wonderfully fertile musical material as inspiration.

I'm quite thrilled with the result! It's at once modernist, rhythmic, offbeat, and "classical."

We had a blast conceiving and producing the music video. Anna Whistler, our incomparable camerawoman and friend, turned the stage into a dance floor, and before we knew it, we had fantastic footage of our dancing shadows to splice into the final cut. Ultimately, however, we decided on a more understated tone for the video (in contrast to some of our others)... keeping it classy for MJ. Also, a special shout out to Smith College and Yale alumniVentures for helping to make the music video possible.
 

"Blue Danube Fantasy" score available for sale

Guess what? Now you, too, can tackle the labyrinth of complexities that is the Blue Danube Fantasy! We realize it has taken us years to make the score available for sale, and we thank you for your patience.

No longer a messy, illegible manuscript, the newly notated score is beautiful, if we do say so ourselves! You can purchase a PDF file of the score (as well as many other fantasies and arrangements) on the composition page.

The score will be available in soft cover in the New Year.

Anderson & Roe on WGBH's "Live from Fraser"

Listen to the hour-long show here! We discuss and perform our arrangements of Piazzolla, Saint-Saëns, Bach, Radiohead, Rachmaninoff, and Bizet.