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Sharing an instrument isn't as bad as it sounds

Matthew Washburn

When you were growing up did you play classical music? Did you have your own instrument? The classical classical duo Zofo - made up of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi - play one piano. At the same time. KBIA's Trevor Harris  recently talked with the duo by phone about the nature of playing one piano with four hands, the process of commissioning new music for their repertoire and their new CD Zoforbit.

Their name Zofo is shorthand for twenty-finger orchestra. The duo has been performing together since 2009. Along the way they have performed at Carnegie Hall, garnered two Grammy nominations and comissoned eleven works for one piano, four hands. Performing together they coax a surprisingly wide range of sounds from their Steinway.  

The duo's third CD release is Zoforbit: A Space Odyssey on the Sono Luminus label. It features Urmas Sisask's Piano Sonata op. 24 for four hands; Gustav Holst's The Planets, George Crumb's Makrokosmos IV: Cosmic Dances for Amplified Piano, Four Hands; and David Lang's Gravity.

While it works sometimes to arrange existing works for one piano, four hands, the duo Zofo is interested in expanding the repertoire for their performances and recordings. Since there are limited arrangements for one piano, four hands, Zimmerman and Nakagoshi regularly commission works from contemporary composers.

ZOFO_on_new_music.mp3
Zofo's Keisuke Nagagoshi and Eva Maria Zimmermann talk in a recent interview with KBIA's Trevor Harris about commissioning works by contemporary composers and why that matters.

If you are willing to collaborate in a novel way as Zofo's two members do on a shared piano, what about prepared piano? Prepared piano is the process of modifying the instrument to derive unfamiliar sounds when keyboard hammers hit paper or metal instead of strings. Here Zofo's Keisuke Nakagoshi discusses the challenges of manipulating the instrument before someone else's work.

ZOFO_on_prepared_piano.mp3
Zofo's Keisuke Nakagoshi discusses the artistic freedoms that he and Zofo partner Eva-Maria Zimmerman like to take with other people's works as performed on his prepared piano.
Zofo_Jupiter_segment.mp3
Listen to a selection from the duo Zofo's new release, Zoforbit: A Space Odyssey. Here is their take on Gustav Holst's 'Jupiter' from his orchestral work, 'The Planets.'

Listen for works from Zofo's new CD Zoforbit: A Space Odyssey on KBIA during classical music heard weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00p.m.

Trevor serves as KBIA’s weekday morning host for classical music. He has been involved with local radio since 1990, when he began volunteering as a music and news programmer at KOPN, Columbia's community radio station. Before joining KBIA, Trevor studied social work at Mizzou and earned a masters degree in geography at the University of Alabama. He has worked in community development and in urban and bicycle/pedestrian planning, and recently served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia with his wife, Lisa Groshong. An avid bicycle commuter and jazz fan, Trevor has cycled as far as Colorado and pawed through record bins in three continents.
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