Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher: COUNTERPOINT

Conrad Tao, piano
Caleb Teicher, tap dance

Counterpoint is a collaboration between pianist and composer Conrad Tao and choreographer and dancer Caleb Teicher. The duo explore the dichotomy of their different perspectives and artistic practices, expanding their individual expressive capacity through a collective experience. Harmonic, rhythmic, and theatrical counterpoint between the artists seeks to map out constellations linking their disparate traditions, driving the imagination and opening the heart. The stylistically diverse music of Counterpoint includes the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Art Tatum’s demented stride piano, Arnold Schoenberg’s ironic take on the Viennese waltz, a delicate miniature from Tao and Teicher’s More Forever, and threading it all together, a work that bridges traditions, approaches, and styles—Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Tao and Teicher’s earlier work, More Forever, is a Bessie Award-winning, New York Times critic’s pick which was lauded for “constantly extending the sonic aspects of dance.”

PROGRAM:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 998: Aria
Conrad Tao/Caleb Teicher: Improvisation
Arnold Schoenberg: Fünf Klavierstücke, Op. 23: V. Waltzer
Ray Noble/Art Tatum/Bud Powell: Cherokee
Charles “Honi” Coles/Brenda Bufalino: The Coles and Bufalino Soft Shoe
Johannes Brahms: Fantasias: Intermezzo in E Major, Op. 116, No. 4
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/David Parker: Song and Dance, based on Allegretto “Alla Turca” from Sonata in A Major, K. 331
Conrad Tao/Caleb Teicher: Swing 2 from More Forever
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue arr. for solo piano
Maurice Ravel: Mouvement de menuet from Sonatine in F-sharp Minor
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 998: Aria

Program subject to change.

“Together Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher create magic onstage.” – The New York Times

“Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher are extraordinary artists individually, and together they will bring a thrilling alchemy to the winter Vilar Dance Series with COUNTERPOINT. I can’t wait to share their brilliance with our audiences in the Vail Valley with this not to be missed performance” – Damian Woetzel, Artistic Director of the Vail Dance Festival

Attendees are invited to join a more in-depth dialogue with Caleb and Conrad immediately following the show, moderated by Vail Dance Festival Artistic Director, Damian Woetzel.