Freelance pianist believes in music as a universal language.
People know me as: Thomas Kasdorf, freelance collaborative pianist, coach and musical theater director.
Coming up next: I’ll be performing Mozart’s Concerto in A Major with Middleton Community Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Middleton Performing Arts Center at Middleton High School. Tickets are $10; free for students. Tickets are available at Willy Street Co-op West or at the door.
Don’t miss it because: The Middleton Community Orchestra is a fantastic community ensemble, made up of so many highly talented amateur musicians. I’m very excited to be working with them again, having worked with them previously with the Perlman Trio for last year’s performance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto. For a collaborative musician, working with an orchestra is really the highest form of collaboration, and the Mozart concerto is a superb vehicle for large-scale ensemble playing. The elegance, lyricism, brilliance and poise of the piece create a great canvas for both soloist and orchestra.
Your training? I graduated last summer with my bachelor’s of music in piano performance from UW-Madison, studying with professor Christopher Taylor.
Favorite place to perform: I’d have to declare a tie between the Middleton Performing Arts Center and the Bartell Theatre. Both are radically different, but I love the impressive grandeur and richness of the PAC and the attitude, warmth and sense of community that the companies working at the Bartell give to their venue. I’ve worked on many different kinds of performances at both venues and have so many fantastic memories of each place.
Most inspiring moment on stage: I played the final movement of Oliver Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” with violinist Eleanor Bartsch at a house concert. After we finished, there was an intense solid minute of silence, and we slowly looked up at our audience, each member of which was sobbing. It reaffirmed clear beliefs of mine that music not only expresses what cannot be fully comprehended in any other manner, but also that music is a universal language, understood and felt by absolutely everyone in some way.
Worst moment on stage: During a performance of “Cabaret,” with the band positioned in full view of the sold-out audience. I fell asleep during a really long scene and woke up playing in the middle of the musical number “Mein Herr.” I was so stunned and terrified, but I guess no one knew anything was wrong. It gave new meaning to being able to “play something in your sleep.”
Who or what inspires you?: I’m constantly inspired by my collaborative partners. I feel so blessed to be able to learn so much from every individual that I work with, and that insight carries into all of my future collaborations.
— Interview by Gayle Worland
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