Counterpoint Comes to Purdue on February 8

Pianist Conrad Tao and dancer/choreographer Caleb Teicher put their brilliant minds together to create Counterpoint, a new sonic and visual take on the iconic masterworks of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and Gershwin. They bring this incredible new show to Loeb Playhouse on February 8. 

Conrad Tao is well known for his global presence as a soloist and composer. He has received high praise from New York Magazine, being recognized as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music.” Tao’s performances include collaborations with prestigious orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Boston Symphony. His debut large-scale orchestral work, “Everything Must Go,” premiered with the New York Philharmonic, showcasing his innovative approach to composition. Notable awards include the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the honor of being named a Gilmore Young Artist. In the 2023-24 season, Tao continues to expand his musical horizons with performances, including a subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a curated program for the New York Philharmonic. Beyond traditional concerts, Tao engages in artistic collaborations, such as his curated concert featuring the UK-based new-music collective Distractfold. As a Warner Classics recording artist, Tao’s albums, including “Voyages” and “Pictures,” have garnered critical acclaim, establishing him as a musician of profound intellectual and emotional depth. 

Caleb Teicher is a NYC-based dancer and choreographer specializing in musically-driven dance traditions and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a solo performer and collaborator, Teicher is known for choreographic collaborations with diverse musical talents: world-champion beatboxer Chris Celiz, the National Symphony Orchestra, and indie rock legends Ben Folds and Regina Spektor. In 2015, Caleb shifted their creative focus towards Caleb Teicher & Company, a creative home for incubating new concert dance works from Teicher’s unique perspective. Caleb is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award, the 2020 Gross Family Prize, and a 2019 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Vogue, Interview Magazine, on the cover of Dance Magazine and, most recently, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside Regina Spektor.

Counterpoint is a collaboration in which this duo explores the dichotomy of their different perspectives and artistic practices, expanding their individual expressive capacity through a collective experience. Harmonic, rhythmic, and theatrical counterpoint between the artists seeks to map out constellations linking their disparate traditions, driving the imagination and opening the heart. The stylistically diverse music of Counterpoint includes the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Art Tatum’s demented stride piano, Arnold Schoenberg’s ironic take on the Viennese waltz, a delicate miniature from Tao and Teicher’s More Forever, and threading it all together, a work that bridges traditions, approaches, and styles—Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Tao and Teicher’s earlier work, More Forever, is a Bessie Award-winning, New York Times critic’s pick which was lauded for “constantly extending the sonic aspects of dance.”

Check out Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher’s pre-show interview to learn more.

BUY TICKETS