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        On the music of NICK DRAKE
            (and Elliot Smith and Radiohead)    

"I've never met a song of theirs that I didn't love.
  I do think that as much great classical music as
     there is, there's other great music as well."
 

"You know the Duke Ellington adage: There's only two kinds of music - good music and bad music."


It certainly seems that this dictum has been the guiding light of classical pianist CHRISTOPHER O'RILEY's multidimensional career.  O'RILEY's world encompasses

1. the classical concert stage (he is one of America's top tier concert pianists);

2. radio and TV (the host of America's most popular classical music radio show "From the Top" which airs weekly on National Public Radio, he now showcases America's brightest young classical musicians on public TV as well - in "From the Top at Carnegie Hall," entering its second year in May 2008); and

3. popular music (his transcriptions in the classical style - of pop/rock music he is "covetous of" - have earned 4 Rolling Stone stars). 

Next season, he takes another of his bold ideas to the recital stage, performing a program that intertwines classic piano music with his own pop transcriptions, pairing Claude Debussy with Nick Drake, Robert Schumann with Elliott Smith and Dimitri Shostakovich with the Radiohead band.

In this video interview held on February 16, 2007 following rehearsals for the World Premiere of his "TRIBUTE TO NICK DRAKE" at UCLA's Royce Hall, O'RILEY - who has been a pop/rock and jazz enthusiast from his youth - talks about what draws him to these genres and why he does what he does.

And it must be added, with great success! Indeed, he has shown that the possibilities for classical music are limited only by one's imagination and that the forecast of its demise is grossly premature. -JB © FanFaire 2008

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW for video clips excerpted from the World Premiere rehearsal of "Time has told me:  A Tribute to NICK DRAKE":

JOEY

NORTHERN SKY

BRYTER LAYTER

THREE HOURS

HARVEST BREED/ PLACE TO BE

About O'RILEY 

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