Pianist and magician Igor Lipinski, with Teller of the Las Vegas magician duo Penn & Teller. Courtesy/LAMTA
Pianist and magician Igor Lipinski. Courtesy/LAMTA
LAMTA News:
Members of the Los Alamos Music Teachers Association (LAMTA) will be attending their state conference with students who are entering state competition Nov. 10-12 in Albuquerque.
A highlight of the conference that is also open to the general public will be the appearance of pianist and magician Igor Lipinski.
Lipinski reimagines the piano recital in a mystifying and hilarious evening of music and magic, Piano Illusions, at 7 p.m. Friday Nov. 10 at the Berna Facio Center, 3315 Louisiana Blvd., NE. in Albuquerque. General admission for adults is $15 and for seniors and students $10.
Lipinski’s program features music-related sleight-of-hand tricks and memory feats but also delves into the illusions created in music itself. In Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, for example, Lipinski amusingly unfolds the mysterious ways variations can disguise and hide the Paganini theme.
Although Piano Illusions took form as Lipinski’s senior project at the Eastman School of Music, his dual interest in music and magic began much earlier. As a pre-teen, he had already won both the Grand Prize Award from the National Association of Magicians in Poland and the Grand Prize at the Paderewski Competition for Young Pianists.
“I was obsessed with magic,” he said. “I recorded every magic show on tv and played each video back in slow motion so I could reverse-engineer the magic.”
He read books on magic, went to magic shops, and corresponded and worked with practicing magicians.
After he presented his project at Eastman, he said, “A friend sent a DVD of Piano Illusions to Teller, the great mind from the Las Vegas magician duo Penn & Teller. Teller turned out to be a classical music buff. He loves Bach … He invited me to Las Vegas to work with him on my show. Together, we developed a routine that involves a shuffled deck of cards, a Bach fugue, and an audience participant.”
The show won first prize at the 2011 WQXR Comedy Contest at Caroline’s on Broadway. Since then, Lipinski has presented versions of Piano Illusions as a solo pianist and with symphony orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. Lipinski’s dissertation research at Northwestern University explored the history of unusual piano recitals from Liszt, who liked to surprise his audiences, to Victor Borge.
As an associate professor of piano performance at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Lipinski continues to reimagine the traditional format of the piano recital. In addition to giving live concerts, he has recorded multiple albums under his own label, Vanishing Records.
He commented recently, “As musicians we sometimes forget about the most important aspect of performing in front of people: making a meaningful, lasting connection with the audience, creating a sense of wonder. My piano career, my background in theater, and my life-time interest in magic performance are all connected. I’m inspired by the sheer human interaction that the world of theater provides. Hence—I hope—this makes my own performance more accessible.”
Teller, who never speaks on stage, had this to say about Lipinski: “Igor is an original. He thrills you on the piano. He mystifies you with magical illusions. And he keeps you laughing with his impudent, charismatic charm.”