Season Listing | Program | Program Notes | Biography
Classically progressive! This polished, Grammy-nominated quintet features four woodwinds — flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon — and that most sublime of brass instruments, a French horn. Newly appointed as Ensemble in Residence at the University of Chicago, Imani is known for exuberant musicianship, artistic risk-taking and a rising national profile. Their name means “faith” in Swahili, reflecting African-American and Latin American roots.
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Described as “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “rock stars of the classical music world” (Miami Herald), and “the very model of complete 21st-century musicians” (The Washington Post), the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo has won fans worldwide.
Their albums on the Steinway Label (When Words Fade, An Amadeus Affair, and The Art of Bach) were released to critical acclaim and have spent dozens of weeks at the top of the Billboard Classical Charts. Their Emmy-nominated, self-produced music videos have been viewed by millions on YouTube and at international film festivals.
Since forming their dynamic musical partnership in 2002 as students at The Juilliard School, Anderson & Roe have toured extensively as recitalists and orchestral soloists, presented at numerous international leader symposiums, and appeared on MTV, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. A live performance by Anderson & Roe was handpicked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary.
Highlights of the 2017/18 season include concerts throughout North America (including their Kennedy Center debut), Europe, Asia, and New Zealand; concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic; the release of their latest album, Mother Muse; and webcast hosting for the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
A recent concert review in the Washington Post observed that the duo has “elevated four-hand keyboard music into an art form.”
“While each is a virtuosic powerhouse pianist in his and her own right,” the review continued, “what sets the pair apart is an ability to make emotional and spiritual connections with their audiences, not only through their merry music-making but also their intelligent and witty commentary in between playing.”
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Leonard Bernstein / Anderson & Roe
Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs
John Adams
Hallelujah Junction
Anderson & Roe
Hallelujah Variations
(Variations on a Theme by Leonard Cohen)
John Lennon & Paul McCartney / Anderson & Roe
‘Let it Be’ from Let it Be
Leonard Bernstein / Anderson & Roe
West Side Story Suite
Christoph Willibald Gluck / Anderson & Roe
Ballet from Orphée et Eurydice
Georges Bizet / Anderson & Roe
Carmen Fantasy for Two Pianos
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe have chosen a program for Saturday, April 7, 2018’s Brown County Civic Music concert that includes many of the pieces they performed at their Kennedy Center debut in February.
Highlights of that critically acclaimed performance included the duo’s self-penned “Hallalujah Variations,” which will be the third selection of the program. Based on the famous theme by the late Leonard Cohen, the Anderson and Roe variation sets the tender melody against an intricate backdrop of harmonics and countermelodies.
In “Hallelujah Junction,” a 1996 composition for two pianos by American composer John Adams (a composition unrelated to the more famous Cohen music), the artists combine for a rhythmic soundscape, creating an effect of echoing sonorities.
Concluding the first half of the concert will be an Anderson and Roe interpretation of the Beatles’ classic “Let it Be,” with a take that has been described as bringing out jazz or gospel undertones of the melody.
The duo resumes after intermission with the moving, spirited and crowd-pleasing music of Leonard Bernstein’s “America.”
One of opera’s most beloved masterpieces, the elegant and emotional Ballet from Orphée et Eurydice, by the 18th century composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, will follow. Closing the program is more opera-inspired music, this time with Anderson & Roe’s treatment of Georges Bizet’s masterwork, with “Carmen Fantasy for Two Pianos.”
Here’s another reminder about our “make-up concert” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at West High School. (Use your tickets for the cancelled show for this one; if you’ve misplaced them, just check in at our Civic Music table in the lobby.) We’re hearing great things about that night’s artists, Seraph Brass. Snowbird friends who caught recent concerts in Florida tell us it’s an excellent show. The group just released its first album, Asteria. Learn more, and catch a preview.
We’ll gather again at the Tap Room, Titletown Brewing Co., 200 Dousman St., following the Saturday, April 7, Anderson & Roe concert.
As our postcard mailing last week instructed, anyone wishing to pay extra to reserve a close-in seat for Opera in the Garden, Sunday June 10th at the Green Bay Botanical Garden, should contact the Garden directly. Unfortunately, due to an error at the printers, an incorrect phone number was listed. The correct number is 920-490-9457. You may also order online at www.GBBG.org/Opera. The cost is $10 per seat. General admission – the ability to stake out your lawn location for your own lawn chair, camp chair or blanket – is free to all. (Civic Music members not purchasing the $10 reserved seats are invited to arrive as early as two hours before the 4 p.m. concert to claim prime locations, ahead of non-members.) Early arrivals might also find open benches and patio seating near the top of the amphitheatre hill.
Sometime in the next two weeks, current members will open their mail to find a renewal brochure for Civic Music. As always, we’ll offer an incentive for signing up immediately, in the form of drawings for restaurant gift certificates, an overnight lodging/gaming package, and a chance at front-row reserved seats for Civic Music’s Opera in the Garden on June 10. For new members, of course, the carrot for early signups will be the bonus of being able to attend the final concert of this season, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on May 5, free.
Our April 7 visit to the Ashwaubenon PAC is a chance for our members to check out a fine addition to the local performance scene. While the spacious Holter Auditorium at West H.S. remains our traditional home, and there will be no immediate return to Ashwaubenon for any concerts next season, it’s entirely reasonable to think we’ll consider the facility for occasional future concerts as artist schedules and venue conflicts dictate. For that reason, we’ll welcome your feedback, post-concert. Contact any Civic Music board member, or email comments to board president Chris Sampson at CSampson@new.rr.com.
