The composer Steve Mackey first met the pianist Orli Shaham at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2007. David Robertson was conducting a concert in which each of them was soloists. “I was playing the solo electric guitar part in my Tuck and Roll, and we had our soloist-maestro meeting. Orli, seven months pregnant with twins, was just leaving as I was coming in. And since my wife was expecting at the time, we bonded at that moment,” says Steve.
David Robertson, the conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, already knew some of Steve’s music. “He had threatened to do it at IRCAM,” says Steve with a wry grin, referring to the center for electronic music in Paris. “And, after Tuck and Roll, he started performing some of my music in St. Louis. He co-commissioned my violin concerto, performed my percussion concerto, and performed a few other of my works. So I made several visits to St. Louis to hear the performances, and we became friends.”
When David told Steve that he and Orli were interested in commissioning him to write a piano concerto, Steve was immediately excited about the idea. “I liked Orli, I had her heard her playing, and I had worked with David. I thought, what a great deal: a great pianist and a great conductor in one package! So I said yes right away.”
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