Duo B!z’art – two pianists playing the same piano – will be visiting Arran for an unusual concert in the community theatre at Arran High School. On Saturday January 27, André Roe and Geoffrey Baptiste, who are both from Belgium, will make a welcome appearance on the island. They specialise in what is unusual and unconventional in music – hence their name – which is intended to suggest the word bizarre.
As well as playing in the duo, André works with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Opera Orchestra of Wallonia. He teaches at the Ettelbruck Music Conservatory in Luxembourg. Geoffrey also works with many leading instrumentalists as well as with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and the Liège Symphony Orchestra.
What will be slightly bizarre about their Arran concert is not so much the music they will be playing, most of it familiar and popular classical pieces, but the way they will be playing it: 20 fingers belonging to two musicians sharing the same 88 piano keys.