Monday, December 04, 2006

Classical Improvisation - An Oxymoron?

Last night Alec & I were watching 60 Minutes when a segment came on about this pianist named Gabriela Montero. Did any of you catch it? It was amazing. She is a classical pianist who also improvises, but in a classical way (as opposed to jazz or another music genre that generally one would improv in). She hasn't always been accepted in classical circles because her talent is frowned upon as unconventional.

She did some improvising for Morley Safer to show how she does it. When she performs, she asks for audience suggestions - if she improvs on a Bach theme they don't recognize it and don't believe that she's making it up as she goes. He suggested the "Star Wars" theme and then "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" as a tango. Both were very cool and can be heard on the 60 Minutes website . You can also see more at her own webpage.

And if you picked my name for Christmas, you can get me her CD!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this info. I was going to watch and then forgot. I can only say that it's impossible to give a reason for why I can't remember well these days. I went to the websites and enjoyed what was there.