Pianist Tedd Joselson & Dr. Susan Lim in ‘Companionship’
Listen to the renowned American pianist Tedd Joselson and pioneer surgeon Dr Susan Lim together in ‘companionship.’ This podcast features conversation and music presenting two of Tedd Joselson’s favourite concertos — the Grieg Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, along with the ‘Lim Fantasy of Companionship’ for Piano & Orchestra, composed by Manu Martin. Listen
Led by conductor Arthur Fagen with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Grieg) and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Rachmaninov), Tedd Joselson’s ‘Companionship of Concertos’ is companion to recording of the Lim Fantasy of Companionship for Piano and Orchestra. Recorded at the same time at Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Society currently finds itself at an intersection of technology and humanity as physical forms embedded with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems fulfil an urgent need for previously unimaginable companions, such as robot caregivers, to address the twin challenges of longevity and loneliness.
It is precisely this concept of an inanimate-human companionship that Dr Susan Lim, together with her project Co-Creative Director, Dr Christina Teenz Tan explored in the ‘Lim Fantasy of Companionship’ for Piano & Orchestra. Composed by Manu Martin, released via Signum Records, and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the Lim Fantasy draws its inspiration from fifteen original songs composed for a proposed musical, ‘ALAN’. It unfolds the story of an inanimate, ‘ALAN’ and the journey of its soul, twice teleported, from an animate to inanimate and ultimately into a human being. The Fantasy is brought to life through the performance of acclaimed pianist, Tedd Joselson alongside the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fagen, together with solo electric guitar, solo voices and choral ensemble, London Voices.
Tedd Joselson describes the work as: “…a truly magnificent addition to the realm of piano concerto repertoire…a masterstroke of creative ingenuity, which I am truly delighted and honoured to lead as solo pianist”.
Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson was only 17 when he auditioned for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s music director, Eugene Ormandy, after which the famous conductor remarked “Anything you want, you can play with us”. He was offered a recording contract by RCA whilst still a student at Juilliard, and quickly became, and remained until his retirement, one of the most sought after performers regularly appearing with nearly every important symphonic ensemble and conductor. He gave his debut piano recital on the Great Performer’s series in Lincoln Center in NYC in 1975. Thereafter, his annual sold out recital tours were eagerly awaited events on the music calendar. Noted for his lyrical playing across a wide range of repertoire, his recordings of works span 400 years of music from Bach to Lim, and have won numerous awards including several Grammy nominations.
Produced by Max Horowitz — Crossover Media, This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation.
