"The piano is a fabulously difficult instrument to categorize, actually. It's a keyboard instrument, but it's also a string instrument. It's in some ways a percussive instrument. I tend to think of it as a resonant instrument," says Conrad Tao, who will feature his collaboration with percussive dancer Caleb Teicher at 2 pm on Sunday, Apr 28 at the Gilmore Piano Festival. They'll perform duos that draw from their creative collaboration of over a decade, including a choreographed Rhapsody in Blue and the world premiere of Procession, written by Tao and Teicher. Tao spoke about their performance in a conversation with Cara Lieurance.
Tao says that the give-and-take between his instrument and Teicher's dancing is special. "Caleb has told me over the years that many tap dancers, when they're riffing, when they're improvising, when they're playing, they're hearing like a saxophone lick or just like or a piano line for that matter in their head... There's some shared thinking there about how we have to kind of create the illusion of melody and continuity and lyricism in some way."
The concert is sold out, but name-your-price livestream tickets are available. More information is at the Gilmore Piano Festival website.
