Counterpoint: Tap Dance Mania! – June 14, 2023 LiveEvents June 7, 2023 938 Montreal Chamber Music Festival presents Counterpoint: Tap Dance Mania! / Contrepoint! A unique concert featuring a piano/tap-dance duo This dynamic duo brings to life the rhythmic pulse of TAP in a way you have never heard. The imaginative artistry of dancer Caleb Teicher blends with the virtuoso, eclectic pianism of Conrad Tao in a way that will blow you away. This concert pushes the boundaries of imagination and is without question one of the more compelling and unusual events you will ever hear and see! Artists Conrad Tao, piano Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and has been dubbed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine, and an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times. Tao has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. As a composer, his work has been performed by orchestras throughout the world; his first large scale orchestral work, Everything Must Go, received its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic, and its European premiere with the Antwerp Symphony, and he was the recipient of a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. He is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. “Tao’s ability to get around a keyboard — with either nimble agility or pounding intensity as required — is something to marvel over.” – Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis. Caleb Teicher, dance Caleb Teicher is a NYC-based dancer and choreographer specializing in musically-driven dance traditions and interdisciplinary collaboration. Teicher began their career as a founding member of Michelle Dorrance’s critically acclaimed tap dance company, Dorrance Dance, while also freelancing in contemporary dance (The Chase Brock Experience, The Bang Group), Lindy Hop (Syncopated City Dance Company), and musical theater (West Side Story International Tour and London). As a solo performer and collaborator, Teicher is known for choreographic collaborations with diverse musical talents: world-champion beatboxer Chris Celiz, composer/pianist Conrad Tao; the National Symphony Orchestra, and indie rock legends Ben Folds and Regina Spektor. Caleb is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award, the 2020 Gross Family Prize, and a 2019 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Vogue, Interview Magazine, on the cover of Dance Magazine and, most recently, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside Regina Spektor. Program: J.S. BACH Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 TAO/TEICHER Improvisation SCHOENBERG Five Piano Pieces, op. 23: V. Walzer NOBLE/POWELL/TATUM “Cherokee” COLES & BUFALINO The Coles and Bufalino Soft Shoe BRAHMS Intermezzo in E major, op. 116/4 MOZART/DAVID PARKER Song and Dance, based on Mozart’s Sonata in A major, K.331: III. Allegretto “Alla Turca” TAO/TEICHER Swing 2 from More Forever GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue, arr. for solo piano RAVEL Sonatine: II. Mouvement de Menuet J.S. BACH Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 Salle Bourgie Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 7:30pm To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com To learn more about the Montreal Chamber Music Festival visit: www.themontrealeronline.com/2023/05/the-montreal-chamber-music-festival