Dueling pianos coming to St. Catharine College

Two pianos and six hands will be providing the entertainment on Feb. 24.
Mid-Kentucky Arts presents “Dueling Chopsticks! A Piano Concert Extraordinaire!” at 3 p.m. at St. Catharine Hall, located on the campus of St. Catharine College.
Patrons should expect the unusual, according to Teresa Tedder, one of the pianists performing.  It won’t be a ‘sit-real-still’ kind of recital.
“We will have two pianos and, of course, three of us, what we refer to as six hands,” Tedder said.
She will be performing alongside Joanna Ximenes, a piano teacher from Louisville. Tedder said Ximenes is her duet partner and the duo has been performing since 2002.
Also part of the trio is Higo Rodrigues, a Springfield resident who is an accompanist for Mid-Kentucky Arts and the music director for the Presbyterian church in Springfield.
During part of the performance, Tedder said, all six hands will be on one piano. Other times there will be two people on one piano, one on the other. Then, in the middle of the piece, the pianists might switch places.
The event will include a “kind of  Victor Borge comedy routine” set to Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody,” which is a piece most will recognize, Tedder said.
“We fight over the piano, we knock each other off the benches,” she said. “It’s going to be light-hearted music. Many of the pieces are going to be familiar to the audience.”
Selections will include renditions from Scott Joplin, George Gershwin and American Jazz. Some of the pieces include Stars and Stripes Forever, Scaramouche and Malaquena.
The finale, Tedder said, is called Dueling Chopsticks.
“You fight back and forth to see who can play Chopsticks the best,” she said.
Tedder said the trio began working on the performance in October. Since Christmas, she said, they’ve been working together on average of twice a week. Tedder said she devotes two hours daily to the routine.
With intermission, the performance will last an hour and 45 minutes.
Student admission is free. For ticket information, please contact Susan Spalding at (859) 336-9232.
The performance takes place at 3 p.m. on Feb. 24 at St. Catharine Hall on the campus of St. Catharine College.