artistic process

Backstage @ Cliburn 2022

We're delighted to announce a very special #TwoPianoTuesday livestream series:

BACKSTAGE@CLIBURN 2022!

Launching Tuesday, April 4, the five-episode series will take you inside the unforgettable drama and riveting artistry of the historic 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

As official correspondents for the competition, we were waiting in the wings to cheer on and interview all of the competitors as they walked off stage. The result was ten hours of unfiltered reactions, poignant emotions, and compelling insights. We have curated and edited together this footage to premiere, along with new commentary and performance montages (culled from 60 hours of performance footage), on five Tuesdays this April and May. Join us for exclusive content you won't find anywhere else!

Check out the trailer for a taste of what's to come:

HOW TO WATCH

Each of the five episodes will be streamed live (Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. EDT) and available on-demand on four sites: our Anderson & Roe YouTube & Facebook channels as well as the Cliburn's YouTube & Facebook channels.
 

EPISODE SCHEDULE

Streaming live Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. EDT

  • April 4 – Competition Trends

  • April 11 – Uladzislau Khandohi, Ilya Shmukler, & Clayton Stephenson: The Finalists

  • April 25 – Dmytro Choni: Bronze

  • May 2 – Anna Geniushene: Silver

  • May 9 – Yunchan Lim: Gold

The first episode, "Competition Trends," is chock-full of content and not to be missed. We will discuss the immense challenges these competitors faced, repertoire programming in wartime, Sir Stephen Hough’s dynamic commissioned work, and much more.

We can't wait to share these powerful stories with you all!

Orford Musique Piano Duo Workshop

Join us in beautiful Quebec, Canada for a week of coachings, master classes, and concerts this August 7-13. It’s our first ever week-long workshop, and we look forward to using the substantive time together to share our best duo secrets, tips, and ideas!

Our 2020 workshop was disappointingly canceled due to COVID, but we’re thankful the Orford Musique Academy is back on campus this summer. To accommodate pandemic-related scheduling complications, the festival is continuing to accept applications over the coming months. Find more information here, and feel free to message us if you have any questions: andersonroe@gmail.com.

Hallelujah! Our new music video is here ✨

Hallelujah. So much meaning is compounded in this word. From its religious to colloquial uses, it conjures up a litany of emotions: praise, despair, relief, awe. The same could be said for Leonard Cohen’s iconic song by the same name; it is loaded with complexity. “Hallelujah” delves into brokenness, yearning, and atonement, and it questions the point of everything … which is a sentiment we all can relate to during this pandemic.

Cohen, a spiritual seeker throughout his life, once summed up the meaning of his song:

“This world is full of conflicts… of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’ …That's the only moment that we live here fully as human beings.”

In surrendering to the turmoil surrounding us, perhaps we might open a pathway to new realms of awakening and revelation. 

Greg and I were inspired by these concepts in creating our composition “Hallelujah Variations.” We began writing the score in the wake of Cohen’s death in November 2016 (incidentally another fraught time in recent history); we inevitably felt the need to channel the range of psychological states in response to loss. Alongside the inspiration of Cohen’s song itself, we also looked to the music of Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven; their compositional styles were a fitting match for the transcendental message of “Hallelujah.” We found resonance between Schubert’s poetic, intimate piano-duet (and lied) writing and Cohen’s bard-like lyrics and simple melodic lines. As our variations progress toward an exalted climax we incorporate the metaphysical spirit of late Beethoven (the ghost of a certain piano sonata hovers—music lovers, try to spot it).

Our music video explores related themes of spiritual searching and renewal. The shoot took place last September over two days at the epic Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana—one of our favorite performing and filming venues in the world—and we focused on the concept of playing these eight variations amid the full cycle of a day (à la Monet’s legendary Haystacks). We started with a 4:30AM call-time beneath a sky littered with stars, weathered nearly 100-degree heat and shifting winds midday, wrapped post-nightfall, then resumed again the following dawn. Our small but mighty crew—major shout-out to Emily, Adam, Chris, and Brian!—was top-notch and fully immersed in the shoot with us. Greg began editing the film in between our recent tour dates, but as concert cancellations starting rolling in and quarantine restrictions began, the editing process accrued extra degrees of urgency, motivation, and relevancy. The two of us communicated across the country via FaceTime to finalize the edits, and the meaning of the project gained a whole new level of poignancy amid the anxiety and confusion of these times. Working on this film together has given us profound gratitude for the outlet of creativity as well as a revived commitment to share the joy and power of music with others, no matter what shall pass. Full circle, indeed.

So this is our gift to you: a heartfelt meditation on transcending the depths of darkness and suffering. May this music video bring you and yours consolation, hope, and light in the days to come.

-Elizabeth Joy Roe

Composition competition winner: Man of Mystery

2019 has been our year of music videos (Oblivion, What a Wonderful World, Lullaby, several Tippet Rise collaborations, and lots more to come…), but perhaps we’re most excited about our upcoming video production featuring the winner of our New Music New Video composition competition.

When International Piano Magazine asked for more information on our winner, Edgar Ordóñez, we realized all we knew was what he stated in his application—he is a 57-year-old composer from Columbia. Everything else was a complete mystery to us!

We reached out to Edgar for answers and were utterly charmed by his responses. It’s our great pleasure and honor to now shine the spotlight on Edgar, our New Music New Video International Man of Mystery. 😎

Greg: What went through your mind when you found out we’d selected your composition as the winning piece?

Edgar: I had a hard time giving credit to the result of your contest. After I sent you the score, I told myself that I shouldn't have done it, because I wouldn't stand a chance if I had to compete with professional composers who have solid academic backing and, no doubt, brilliant CVs. But that day I was surely influenced by an excess of optimism and sent that work. 

Liz: We’re so glad your optimism won out! Tell us a little bit about your musical background.

Edgar: Unfortunately, there is not much to say about me, or what has to be said is too poor and perhaps it would be better not to say it. I am Colombian and live in Bogotá, although I was born in a small city where in my childhood and adolescence I did not find any opportunity to train in music, which was what I was passionate about: there was no conservatory, or academy, or music teachers. However, at the age of thirteen I had the madness of becoming a classical pianist, so even though I didn't have a piano at home because my parents couldn't afford to buy one, I managed to borrow an instrument from the only university in the city, and I began to study without any guide, trying to decipher some books on music theory, solfège and harmony that an amateur had in his library and that he had the generosity to lend them to me. 

At the age of twenty I left that city and settled in Bogotá, but economic problems prevented me from continuing my dream of studying at a conservatory. In this city my situation was much more difficult, because I couldn't find anyone who could lend me an instrument. So, between that city, and then in Santiago de Chile, where I lived for a long period, about fifteen years passed in which I could not practice any piano at all. At that time I began to work in publishing houses, and finally my life was directed in that direction, either as an editor, or as a mercenary writer or ghostwriter, or as a style corrector. That's what I'm still working on and that's what I live by. 

Greg: Really, it’s incredible to hear that you’re self-taught.

Liz: We’re on the edge of our seats… How did you get back into music and begin composing?

Edgar: I was in my forties when, in a better financial situation, I was able to buy an old piano, but it was too late to continue my studies as a pianist. My love of music and attachment to the old dream of being a musician motivated me to try composition, and I soon discovered that I actually had more talent for that specialty than for the piano. 

Around the age of seventeen I tried to write a fugue, but was unable to complete it. In order to get rid of that old thorn, in middle age I decided to "graduate" as a self-taught composer by writing a series of fugues. I wrote five, and the "Fuga allucinata" is the third of them.

Music was not my only great love in life: so has literature, and since I felt indebted to my dreams of early adolescence, I have also spent time training myself as a writer and leaving some literary works. In fact, in recent years this activity has robbed music of a bit of time, although it has not been in vain: I have written several books between novels and short story books, and I have won some literary competitions in my country and some in Spain.

Liz: I can relate; music and literature are great passions of mine as well. How has your music not made its way to the masses? Have your compositions ever been performed?

Edgar: I live completely marginalized from musical circles, so the diffusion of my musical work is practically nil. I don't care much about that: finally what I'm interested in is creating, and I try to do the best I can. I've never been interested in becoming famous or looking for success, and I don't live on music either, so I've never set out to promote what I do. Anyway, as I am convinced that music is created to be listened to and not to be kept written in a drawer, I have a modest channel on YouTube where from time to time I upload some occurrences that I try to make audible in versions worked in a digital synthesizer. I prefer not to have a presence on social networks. Maybe it's a lack of self-confidence, as I'm perfectly aware that I can't consider myself a professional composer. 

Liz: The joy and fulfillment of pure creativity is something we live for, too! And we’ve said it before— our judging criteria simply revolved around finding the piece that most excites us. We asked for very little personal information from our applicants because we hoped to connect with the winning composer based on the music, full stop.

Greg: Yes! You should be extremely proud. You’ve won an international composition competition over some very distinguished composers. Your compositional voice, while highly unique and personal, is undeniably at a professional level. Congratulations!

Edgar: I do not know how to express my gratitude to you and communicate to you the emotion and happiness that your decision has awakened in me.

I must add that for years I have enjoyed the versions that you publish on your YouTube channel. Congratulations on the excellence of your work. Some of your arrangements are simply fascinating and I must admit that you have come to awaken my envy. I have great empathy for your idea of what the future of music should be, and I congratulate you wholeheartedly on the effort you are making to channel the interest of new composers into a music that fuses the best of popular music with classical tradition. As you do, I am convinced that this is the new path that music must follow, a path in which rhythm is creatively and provocatively exploited, the sensual harmonic development and the innovative energy that jazz knew how to propose as an alternative to the dead end of the coldly cerebral atonalism and devoid of feelings and emotion.

Greg: We truly couldn’t be more thrilled to have you as a partner in our mission to make classical music a powerful and relevant force in society. I think our fans will be in complete agreement once they have the opportunity to hear your winning composition, “Fuga allucinata.” Bravo.

Liz: Absolutely. Thank you, Edgar. We can’t wait to share the music video we create together.