Ask Greg & Liz

 

View the Question and Answer archives. Greg and Liz's previous answers can be found in the following categories:

 

Piano duo advice | Piano Duo repertoire | Compositions and Arrangements | Libertango | Videos | Recording | Juilliard | Personal | Miscellaneous | Performances |

 

 

The most recent questions and answers are posted here:

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I read your answer about why the Libertango score is not for sale yet, but I am wondering how soon you think it might be - would it be a matter of months, or years possibly? Thanks!

- Annee

 

Dear Annee,

 

Thanks for your interest (and everybody else's for that matter)! We can't promise anything regarding the release of the Libertango score (lots of complications, lots of complications...). At the very earliest: a year from now; at the latest: five to ten years from now. We'll definitely send a message to the mailing list when the day finally arrives!

 

However, we have some other plans up our sleeves that may interest you. This summer we hope to create a new series of arrangements for one-piano/four-hands -- arrangements that don't come plagued with copyright issues, arrangements that are equally cool and virtuosic, and arrangements that are... just... better (we have a lot more experience at this point). We'll be sure to let the mailing list know when these virtuoso four-hand pieces are ready.

 

Thanks for your patience Annee!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

A London, England concert would be nice...

- Chris

 

Dear Chris,

 

We agree. We're both Anglophiles, Liz especially. Please help us set up a concert in London. Thanks. :)

 

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

after your cd/dvd arrived at home today (in germany) i wondered if there will be a cd or dvd available from the star wars transcriptions? or maybe some other pieces like the sabre dance? i couldn't find information on your page about these things (perhaps i didn't search deeply enough) thanks for sharing your great talents with us

- Andreas

 

Dear Andreas,

 

A record label flirted with the possibility of recording the Star Wars transcriptions a while back, but as it currently stands, there are no plans to record this work. Our latest album required an enormous investment of time and energy to produce; nonetheless, we've already started tossing around dozens of ideas for future releases. We can't wait! Whenever our plans start to materialize, we'll start planting teasers online... :)

 

First, we need to finish editing the second trailer for "Reimagine!"

 

-Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

When are you coming to Australia? We have a brilliant Concert Hall in Melbourne and I WILL be there on opening night!

- Jenny Hibbens

 

Dear Jenny,

 

There's talk of a possible tour in New Zealand and Australia in 2010... rumors really. It's a ways off, but you could help this become a reality by pitching a plug at your local concert series!

 

Hope to see you soon,

 

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Hallo Greg & Liz,

auf euch durch die Libertangoaufnahme (habt ihr schon die Argerich-Videos gesehen) und die Tarrega-Variationen über ein Thema aus Gran Vals (M.A. Hamlin hat sich auch schon daran versucht) aufmerksam geworden möchte ich, nachdem ich euer Repertoire gelesen habe wissen, warum ihr die f-moll Fantasie von Franz Schubert (D 940) (noch) nicht spielt? Sie steht den anderen Kompositionen, die ihr bereits beherrscht in keiner weise nach. Außerdem habe ich noch kein Stück von Franz Liszt in eurem Repertiore gefunden - obwohl sich seine Kompositionen, wie sich bereits erwiesen hat (Victor Borge ist ein beispielhafter Interpret) dafür hervorragend eignen. Liebe Grüße und Viel Erfolg

- Max

 

Dear Max,

 

Hallo! Wir haben ein bisschen Deutch gelernt, but we communicate much better in English! Why haven't we learned the Schubert Fantasy in F minor? We're still young and we have plenty of years ahead of us. We're in no hurry. Besides, Schubert composed many wonderful works in addition to the Fantasy that are worthy of listeners' and performers' attention. We do hope to get around to some of Liszt's duo music someday, but probably not all of it; after reading through his duo works, we have the distinct impression that Liszt enjoyed composing music for solo piano more.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am every time I hear you play/watch your videos. I'm mesmerized every time! Right now I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the CD "Reimagine" from the States since I wasn't able to purchase it here in the UK. Have you ever considered an arrangement of Liszt's "La Campanella" or maybe you could go wild with some some Czerny pieces such as "The Art of Finger Dexterity"? Thanks so much for pleasure you give to your audience and the refreshing approach you have. It's a delight! I hope one day soon we might see you perform here in the UK. In the meantime may I wish you both every success together. Yours sincerely,

- Trevor Hudson

 

Dear Trevor,

 

Good ideas! We have a giant list of future plans, including the composition of several new arrangements and original compositions. We'll be sure to add your ideas to the list!

 

Thanks for your kind words as well. We work hard and we love what we do, and it's always nice to hear that others appreciate it.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

Are you two personally involved, or is it strictly professional?

- Mike C

 

Dear Mike,

 

We love each other as friends, and that's the extent of it. The nature of our personal relationship (Greg is gay and Liz is straight) is very convenient, preventing romantic issues from complicating our artistic relationship. It also prevents our rehearsals (and performances, for that matter!) from disintegrating into lust-filled activities. Phew!

 

However, we don't like to say our artistic collaboration is "strictly professional" because that sounds so dry and severe. At the heart of our piano duo is an amazing friendship (not a "strictly professional relationship"), and we hope this radiates through whatever we do -- our performances, our compositions and arrangements, our videos, and our albums. For us, art is about human interactions, and our friendship helps remind us of this significance.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

Hello, I did a search on music on You tube and i found blue Danube and Libertango and they were great! Anyway What country are you from and what grade are you both in? Thanks!

- Dolohov

 

Dear Dolohov,

 

Thanks for the kind words! We were both born and raised in the United States (Greg in Minnesota and Liz in Illinois). We both received our Bachelor's and Master's degrees at The Juilliard School (we met on the first day of the freshmen orientation in 2000, and we graduated together in 2006). Greg is presently finishing his final year of class work at Yale University; he's working toward his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance. Liz has been out of school for the past two years; she is presently a member of The Academy -- A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

IS there ANY way I can purchase some of your transcriptions?

- Michael

 

Dear Michael,

 

Please visit our Compositions Page, where you can find information about purchasing our transcriptions and original compositions.

 

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

IS there ANY way I can purchase some of your transcriptions?

- Michael

 

Dear Michael,

 

Please visit our Compositions Page, where you can find information about purchasing our transcriptions and original compositions.

 

You can purchase scores to several of our works featured on our upcoming album, "Reimagine," including "The Cat's Fugue," "The Cuckoo in Sussex," "Danse macabre: remix," "The Swan," and "Erbarme Dich." You can listen to samples by launching the music player. (The Libertango and Blue Danube arrangements are not for sale.)

 

The .pdf files to each score are $10 (The Birds is $15), payable through PayPal. Email your request to andersonroe@yahoo.com and we will send you an invoice. To learn why some of the compositions or arrangements are not available for sale, please visit the Composition Archives in this section of the website.

 

Thanks for your question!

- Greg & Liz

 

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I happened to find you two after researching for Piazzolla music. I really enjoy and have fun listening to your performance and behind the scene, can feel how you both really enjoy making the music video. I live in Perth, Australia. Question: Will you two consider to perform in Perth, Western Australia? PS. Western Australia is located in western part of Australia, in case if you two are wondering. >^v^<

- Yonas

 

Dear Yonas,

 

We would love to perform in Perth someday! We're in the midst of switching booking agents, and once things are settled, we will be sure to put in a good word for Perth.

 

Thanks for all the kind words!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

When I try to compose a song and I need a good melody, I always finding myself erasing pages of work. That's because I have an issue with copying original melodies of other songs without realizing it... any suggestions?

- Austin

 

Dear Austin,

 

We're not exactly sure what to say because we have the opposite problem. We create a lot of arrangements and we find it hard to stick to the melody. We keep finding ourselves straying!

 

Composing can be very challenging, and sometimes days will go by where very little progress is made. However, there are some days (those wonderful, wonderful hours) when pages of music fly off the pen, when inspiration is at its peak, and when everything feels easy and natural. Those hours typically produce the best music, and there is no way to know when it will happen.

 

Greg typically finds his mind the clearest when he's walking or when he's in the shower. (!)

 

Good luck and keep chugging away!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

When you arrange songs for yourselves, do you work off the original score?

- Joey

 

Dear Joey,

 

There's a simple answer to this question: we never work from the original score. We don't like to confine ourselves, and a blank sheet of music paper helps to provide that sense of freedom.

 

The piano is a very idiomatic instrument; it has strengths and weaknesses like any other, and it is important to take advantage of those strengths when composing. Often the best and most effective way is not the literal way.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

My friends and I are planning on holding a virtuoso senior piano recital featuring solos, duos, and a grand finale 2-piano, 8-hand arrangement. Do you know of any particularly exciting, crowd-pleasing duo and quartet pieces that you would recommend for the advanced player?

- Allen

 

Dear Allen,

 

It sounds like you are preparing quite the exciting event! It's kind of difficult to think of "crowd-pleasing" pieces without knowing your intended audience. In such situations, we find it easier to choose pieces that "please" us and hope that the music, our delivery, and our enthusiasm will please the audience as well.

 

One of the most famous and exciting 2-piano, 8-hand works of our time is Mack Wilberg's Fantasy on Themes from Bizet's Carmen. We suggest you start there. There are too many exciting piano duo works to list here, but you could start by looking at any of the early-twentieth century warhorses: Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations, Ravel's La Valse, Rachmaninoff's Second Suite for Two Pianos, Debussy/Ravel's Fêtes, and Milhaud's Scaramouche.

 

Just be careful! All of that virtuosity on one program could work against itself! Good luck and have fun,

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I'm curious about your upcoming debut album! Why did you guys choose "Reimagine" as your album title? What is its significance and what messages would you like your album to convey? I'm really excited about the album and can't wait to hear more information about it! :)

- Jennifer

 

Dear Jennifer,

 

We're really excited about the album too! We poured vast amounts of energy, time, expense, and love into the album and we are proud of the result.

 

The title, "Reimagine," was inevitable. We've reimagined virtually everything we do as a piano duo, and we wanted our album to convey our unique approach to classical music.

 

Most notably, we've reimagined the music we play: everything on the album is composed or arranged by us (other than our intense rendition of The Rite of Spring, which is itself a reimagining of the orchestral version). This reimagining of music occurs in a variety of ways. For example, consider our two versions of Danse macabre: the CD begins with our "Remix" of Danse macabre; it's a complete departure from the original and an entirely new work in our distinctive musical language, although it employs the familiar motives from Saint-Saëns's Danse macabre and Fossils. The CD concludes with a much more traditional approach to the piece; we honor the spirit of the original but recreate the music according to the strengths of our instrumentation.

 

Of course, we haven't just reimagined the music we play. We've reimagined the concept of four hands at one piano; we treat one piano/four-hands as not only something suited to domestic life, but as something with huge potential for the grand concert stage. We've reimagined our approach to the presentation of classical music (view our music videos for an example of this!). We've reimagined the nature of a piano duo relationship. Unlike most piano duos, our relationship is not defined by family or romance, but by friendship, a friendship that yields awesome adrenaline and joy and shapes our collaborations as composers, performers, and creators. And finally, we reimagined our concept of a classical music album. We approached our album as independent producers (without the backing of a record label) so that we could retain complete artistic control over the album's content, design, and marketing. The album contains exciting repertoire that we love (and that we composed ourselves!), a bonus DVD featuring several of our YouTube videos, expansive and beautifully designed packaging, and short commentary written by us about our approach to music ("reimagine!"), about the nature of music listening, and about the beauty of collaboration. We have some bold marketing plans in the works, but we'd like for those plans to remain a surprise just yet!

 

What is the significance of the album and what messages would we like it to convey? This album will defy your expectations on all levels; it is shocking, exciting, revolutionary, and sophisticated, and it will resonate with you in a personal and powerful way. What is the music about? It's about the human experience, it's about racing heartbeats and physical friction, it's about the passions that undulate beneath the restraint of daily life, about the timelessness of dreams, the manic states of being, the unrest of our current times.

 

The official release date is January 15, 2008. Subscribers to the andersonroe.net mailing list will be able to purchase the CD earlier.

 

Thanks for your question!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I'm real anxious to see you in Boston. Will you be performing any time soon in the Boston area?

- Scott

 

Dear Scott,

 

We're anxious to perform in Boston! We hope to see you there soon!

 

We are presently undergoing a number of wonderful changes as a professional duo, most significantly in the way we are represented. As soon as things are settled, we'll let you know, and you can make a request to our booking agents on our behalf! However, don't expect to see us perform as a duo anytime this season apart from a few concerts here and there. Liz is wrapping up her tenure as a artist fellow of the Academy - a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Institute, and Greg is finishing his doctorate studies and dissertation at Yale University as well as composing the next album for The 5 Browns. Once this season is complete, however, we'll put our full focus into duo activities; that means composing and learning new music, filming more videos, and of course, performing more concerts.

 

In the meantime, you can keep your eyes peeled in Boston (or wherever for that matter) for our upcoming debut album - Anderson & Roe Piano Duo: Reimagine. The release date has been postponed, but we promise, it will be released early this winter. We can't wait! There are also a number of videos filmed and nearly ready to post.

 

Thanks for your interest Scott!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I saw that you were there when Steinway released their new line of concert clothing. After reading about that (and looking at the pictures =D) I was wondering if you knew where those clothes are going to be available?

Austin

 

Dear Austin,

 

As far as we are aware, this beautiful new line of concert clothing (mostly tuxedos) is available for purchase. Visit www.steinway.com for more information!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

As a lover of your music, I have to ask: who did you study with at Juilliard?

A young pianist

 

Dear young pianist,

 

Greg studied privately with Julian Martin; Liz studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. As a duo we received coachings from Joseph Kalichstein, Margo Garret, and Jonathan Feldman, as well as with both Mr. Martin and Ms. Kaplinsky.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

First, I must say that I have completely fallen in love with your music! Second, in daring to be different, do the two of you get to choose your wardrobe for performances or is it decided for you? Thanks!

Amanda

 

Dear Amanda,

 

Thanks for your enthusiasm!

 

We usually decide what to wear ourselves. It's something we think about quite a bit because we like to have our wardrobe enhance the music we play. We see it as an integrated part of the performance experience. Finding just the right ensemble of clothing can be tricky, sometimes involving last-minute stops to H&M or Zara's, but it's worth it if it helps set the right tone for the concert.

 

That said, we certainly wouldn't mind working with a stylist some day in the future!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I did not notice a credit for the filming of the Piazzolla video. Did you do the filming yourself? If you did --how? I would like to replicate your work for the classical vocal world which needs your approach badly.

Douglas Martin

 

Dear Douglas,

 

Great! How exciting! We hope to see your videos online soon! Let us know when you post some.

 

We pretty much did everything ourselves, which is why we didn't feel the need to list everything over and over again. (Example -- Direction: Anderson & Roe, Camera work: Anderson & Roe, Video editing: Anderson & Roe, Pianists: Anderson & Roe, etc.) We set up all the stationary shots ourselves, and when only one of us was on screen, the other did the filming. For the moving shots, we asked a different friend for each video (see the actual YouTube pages of the videos for their names) to walk around with the camera while we played the piano. We gave them free reign to do whatever they wanted. We used Liz's moms' inexpensive camcorder to film and we did the editing ourselves using Apple's iMovie.

 

Watch the outtakes to get a better sense of the filming experience. You can also read more specifics (including funny anecdotes) on our blog, "Where Soloists Fear to Tread."

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I love your guy's playing. You inspired me to write a duet! So how long did it take you to write Libertango? Did you guys just sit down one day and say, "Let's rewrite a song," or what? I JUST bought the Browns' new CD [with Greg's compositions and arrangements] by the way. Love your vids!

Austin

 

Dear Austin,

 

Thanks for all your kind words! It's always nice to hear that other people love watching and listening to us as much as we love playing together.

 

"What prompted us to start 're-writing' music?" The answer isn't so simple, but it stems from a desire to take a piece and make it our own. Sometimes we re-imagine music to help keep that which we love relevant to audiences today. Sometimes we do it because there isn't much music our there that suits our distinct style. Sometimes we do it to showcase our personal strengths. Sometimes to give audiences a sense of our personal relationship with the music. Sometimes it's the simple desire to perform music not originally intended for piano that leads us to arrange music. Read our notes on transcriptions for even more thoughts on this matter.

 

"How long does it take to compose our music?" The Libertango arrangement was created pretty hastily. We started writing on a Sunday, started practicing the next Thursday, and we performed it two days later, on Saturday. Our Star Wars Fantasy is essentially an original composition based on a few familiar themes, and as such, it took much, much longer to compose. We started composing in February of 2006, didn't sleep for two months, and finished composing the piece on the day of the performance in early April that same year. Greg will tell you that composing (and arranging) for five pianos takes even longer. His Fantasia on "Dives and Lazarus" took six solid months to compose!

 

Be sure to watch for our CD release (featuring many of our original compositions and arrangements!) later this November!

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

Will the sheet music for the Star Wars Fantasy ever be available?

 

Dear Mr./Ms. Annonymous,

 

We hope so! As we said in an earlier answer (but it keeps coming up, so we post it again):

 

Several of our scores face an onslaught of copyright issues. The day we get around to settling these legal issues, we will post the news on our website and email our mailing list. We hope that day won't be too far into the future, but we honestly cannot predict when this will be! We keep finding ourselves in high demand, and as a result, we haven't had time to devote our attention to such matters.

However, in the meantime, there are a number of other scores available for purchase. Visit the compositions page for more information. For those of you looking for wild four-hand/one-piano music, consider the Sabre Dance arrangement. Additionally, you will be able to hear several of our compositions and arrangements on the upcoming Anderson & Roe Piano Duo CD, to be released later this fall, including "Erbarme Dich," "The Cat's Fugue," "The Cuckoo in Sussex," and "The Swan," all available for sale.

 

- Greg & Liz

 

Dear Greg & Liz,

I cannot wait to hear "Danse Macabre" from you :D please hurry and thanks again for playing.

Andreas

 

Dear Andreas,

 

There's a lot that needs to happen before our CD is released; namely, people have yet to edit the audio recordings, create the master, write the "considerations for listening" (liner notes), design the packaging, build the DVD menu, and produce all the copies. We're aiming to release the CD (with a bonus DVD) in early November.

 

As for the "Danse macabre" - you're in luck. We recorded two versions of the piece. One version is our arrangement which you can hear on our website's music player; the other version is our modernized take on the same tune (titled "Fossil Jamboree") from our own depiction of the Carnival of the Animals. We hope you like both versions!

 

Be sure to join our mailing list to receive notification of the CD/DVD release!

 

- Greg & Liz