Concert on a keyboard with virtuoso Pandolfi
When Thomas Pandolfi gives a concert, as he did for the Shelter Island Friends of Music on April 23, he dazzles his audiences on a nine-foot grand piano. But in the Shelter Island school auditorium the day before his concert, the students were treated to what might be called a world premiere: a virtuoso classical performance by Mr. Pandolfi on a small electronic keyboard, not what he expected.
“It’s a toy!” he said, laughing nervously when he first spotted the instrument on the stage.
The real surprise, though, both for him and the 6th through 12th grade students and teachers in attendance, was the majesty of the sound that filled the auditorium.
As arranged by the Friends of Music and school music teacher Jessica Bosak, the Washington, D.C.-based pianist gave a preview of one of his major works for the Saturday performance: “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin.
As he explained before setting to work at the small instrument, classical composers have always used the pop music of their time in their compositions. In “Rhapsody in Blue,” composed in 1924, that meant the unmistakable sounds of jazz and the blues. The piece is also the source of the theme song in United Airlines commercials, Mr. Pandolfi pointed out.
The orchestral version starts with a famous wail from a clarinet which, thanks to yet more modern technology, Mr. Pandolfi, using his smartphone, was able to play on YouTube. Bringing the old and new worlds even closer together, Mr. Pandolfi mentioned that video games often use themes from classical music.
Like Gershwin, who wrote musical comedies as well as “serious” music, Mr. Pandolfi is a cross-over artist. To great audience appreciation and some humming along, he played a medley of tunes from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera” with his own classical-style arrangement.
Questions afterwards included one from 9th-grader Devon Bolton about how best to practice.
“Practice using different tempos, and with accenting different fingers,” Mr. Pandolfi suggested. “And practice away from the keyboard, hear the sounds.”
Devon does not study music, he said, but he does like to improvise on an electronic keyboard at the school, using the MuseScore app on his smartphone.
