Pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe built a following with arrangements of music by composers like Igor Stravinsky and Camille Saint-Saens, as well as contemporary songwriters like Taylor Swift.
The pair also knows how to use a video camera to draw attention to the music. Their self-produced music videos have racked up more than 10 million views on their YouTube channel.
This arrangement of the Antonio Vivaldi aria "A Rain of Tears" shows off the duo's talents. The pianists dampen the piano strings to suggest the percussive sound of raindrops, and appear against striking backdrops:
The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo visited the CPR Performance recently while in town for concerts with the Boulder Philharmonic. They played their delicate, four-hand arrangement of Ballet from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera “Orpheus and Eurydice.”
The melody in their arrangement creeps forward. The music rarely rises above a whisper. Watch the footage in the video above.
More exclusive music from the CPR Performance Studio:
- Cellist Jay Campbell Plays Bach In The CPR Performance Studio
- Cantus Sings Haunting Music By Ysaye Barnwell
- Boulder's Matthew Dane Blends Classical, Indian Sounds On The Viola D’Amore
- An Electric Performance by Boulder Bach Festival's 'Venice on Fire' Musicians
Here's one more clip from the duo: a fun and unpredictable take on Taylor Swift's single "Shake It Off."
In Anderson and Roe's treatment, the upbeat Swift track moves through several tempo shifts and moods. The duo finds room in Swift's Top 40 hit for moments that recall George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune."
