Piano Circus

Professor Rush’s anti-piano recital, “Piano Circus” was one of the best shows ever performed in the Davis Technology Suite. The recital allowed Rush to show off his virtuosity in piano performance while enhancing the meaning of many of the songs. His decision to combine random parts of the 10 songs being performed with his live play added depth, dissonance, and perspective to each and every song. On top of that, the constant cycle of the sum of music being randomly played throughout the entire concert and in between each piece connected each current performance to every song on the set list. This made the entire 10 song set list one, unified performance rather than a concert.

Professor Rush has consistently critiqued the academic institution’s massive push to keep music before the 20^th century alive in its students. He is constantly finding ways to question the common practices, courses, and teaching in this school of music. He pushes for opportunities for student to receive education on more modern music; from Miles Davis, to Stevie Wonder and David Bowie, Professor Rush often teaches us as students to study the artist who have had a direct impact on music today and not one-hundred and fifty years ago. He believes studying a broad variety of music and artists will give students a better sense of music happening outside the walls of academia and will furthermore help us as music students transition into making a living off our skills. This concert is a great example of Rush taking a traditional concept in classical music and flipping it on its head into something new, modern, and diverse; the way he used the technology helped enhance those concepts even more.

The diversity comes from Rush’s song selection. Rather than choosing the best of Sergei Rachmaninoff to off his virtuosity as a piano player, Rush chose singer-songwriter songs like Stevie Wonder’s If it’s Magic and Flower’s Grave by Tom Waits.  He chose to celebrate the differences in art-forms by playing songs that are completely contrasting in sound back to back. That concept alone was clear; however, his choice to playback the contrasting songs a midst his performance consistently reminded the audience of the contrasts of songs, and allowed us to aurally relate each song to one another repeatedly. This made us as a listener view every song with a comparative mindset, rather than a simple observing ear. And as the listener compared each song to the next, the listener also compared each song to the first song, the second, and so forth—all while appreciating Rush’s virtuosity—and ultimately had so much to consume in his or her mind that the entire showed was washed together. The listener let go of hearing every note and just appreciate the textures, contrasts, concepts, and comparisons thrown at him. “Piano Circus” found a way through technology to combine ten entirely separate concepts into one complete thought.