Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. 

BATTLE CREEK MI — Riotous, savage, and sexy are not words normally associated with classical pianists, but these are the emotions that bubble up for audiences who spend an evening watching Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe perform, says Anne Harrigan, Director of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra (BCSO).

The duo better known as Anderson & Roe, will leave no key unplayed when they take to the stage at W.K. Kellogg Auditorium where they will perform at 7:30 p.m. on April 12 with the BCSO. The performance is titled “Symphony 5: Dynamic Duo.”

Anne Harrigan, Director of the Battle Creek Symphony OrchestraHarrigan, who has developed a reputation for taking chances and creating “really, really great musical collaborations,” has a hard time reigning in her enthusiasm when talking about the duo who are headlining the BCSO’s season finale.

“It’s quite a coup that we were able to bring them here,” she says. “I took a shot and I’m very grateful that they accepted my invitation. This performance is something people definitely should not miss. The way they play and interact with each other is something you don’t see every day.”

Reviewers agree. They have described what they’ve seen as “A riot of ivories; Risk-taking…dangerous; Anderson and Roe are rock stars in the classical music world."
Harrigan says the duo's Battle Creek performance complements the theme of the BCSO’s 126th season — Great Music in Your Hometown.

The program includes Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Suite; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol; Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos; and Bizet/Anderson Carmen Suite. 

“We are creating transformative musical experiences right here in Battle Creek,” she says. “People don’t have to go to Chicago, New York, or Berlin (Germany) to see world-class musicians because we have them right here.”
 
Keying in on connections

Harrigan became an admirer of Anderson and Roe’s musical prowess when they performed with the Billings Symphony Orchestra (BSO) where she serves as the Vincent W. & Janet M. Carpenter Music Director. Harrigan has served in that role for 19 years and has been in that same role with the BCSO since 2003.

In the world of symphony orchestras, she says it’s not uncommon for conductors like herself to lead multiple orchestras which has worked to her advantage and ultimately benefits audience members in the form of connections with critically acclaimed musicians and performers.

The making of these connections isn’t always linear as in the case of Nelson Yovera, a French Horn player from Venezuela who played for one year with the BCSO. In 2023 he was named Principal Horn with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Harrigan met Yovera through David Cooper, Principal Horn with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who he was taking lessons from.

“I go into Chicago to study that symphony. They were holding auditions and David recommended Nelson,” Harrigan says.

Like the majority of musicians, Yovera is responsible for making his own travel arrangements which was complicated by a rudimentary knowledge of English. After arriving in Battle Creek by train, the Venezuelan-born son-in-law of BCSO Board Member Mona Bowden stepped up to be Yovera’s translator and even made the musician and his wife foods native to their country.

This is among the reasons that Yovera “always remembers his Battle Creek roots,” Harrigan says. “His star is rising like a rocket.”

Because the musicians she conducts in both Battle Creek and Billings are family to her, she thoroughly vets potential guest collaborators to make sure everyone involved has a “great experience.”

The BCSO’s musicians typically don’t meet the guest artists in person until rehearsals begin the Wednesday before a concert. They receive the music for a particular performance and recordings of the guest artists one month before gathering in Battle Creek.

“They have to have all of the music ready to go in one month,” Harrigan says. She likens the almost-instant connections that need to be formed to speed dating.

“They have to be highly attuned to other people and what it is about their playing that’s really special. It’s that non-verbal communication, just listening to little moments and inflections and expressions and everything that makes the music of composers like Mozart and Bizet really jump off the page,” Harrigan says. “The notes haven’t changed in 200 years. The reality is that the notes are the tip of the iceberg. It’s the interpretation of the notes and the way they bring it. It’s exciting and fulfilling to us.”

“We do a lot of just watching each other and the body language. You’re starting out with 60 people having different ideas of the way the music will go. Then you have 60 musicians sounding like they’re playing one instrument. You can’t bottle live music.”

Collaborations with artists like Anderson and Roe for Harrigan are like meeting up with the best friend you haven’t seen in 10 years but seems like it was just yesterday.

“Greg and Liz are such an interesting pair. They were students together at Julliard and got along so well. The audience can feel that friendship. Greg and Liz are so engaged on the stage.”

Anne Harrigan, Director of the Battle Creek Symphony OrchestraIn addition to what music reviewers have said about them, Harrigan says they’re exceptional musicians who have a flawless technique that’s amazing against the backdrop of a relationship that has led some audience members to question whether they’re more than friends.

“They are just friends, but you wouldn’t know it when they’re on the stage. Respectively, they’re both happily married,” she says.

Despite this, electricity is what comes to mind when she thinks of Anderson and Roe performing and she’s not alone.

Anderson and Roe are the “very models of complete 21st-Century musicians. They fuse classical and pop music into a blend of high artistry and skillful entertainment... That they are crack pianists goes without saying,” says a Wahington Post review. “A sweet and jewel-like performance … ferocious, thundering…”