Music is medicine – and Anderson & Roe have the perfect dosage!
There are many magical elements from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins that I wish could have morphed into my adult reality. The ability to clean up with the click of my fingers, for example. Also, the freedom of escaping drab routine by jumping into a beautiful chalk drawing on the sidewalk. These are extreme feats of fantasy, though, and even as a child, I could sense that demanding that kind of magic from the universe may be pushing the limits.
There is one scene from the movie, however, that still leaves me hoping (and who knows how technology will adapt over the next few years?!): After a rainstorm washes away Bert’s drawings and Jane and Michael are back in the nursery, a suddenly strict Mary produces and imposingly large bottle and resolutely starts handing over spoons. “People who get their feet wet must learn to take their medicine!” she proclaims, proceeding to dispense gurgling liquid into her protesting charges’ receptacles. And then … Jane’s medicine turns into bright green lime cordial! Michael’s becomes a deep red strawberry (“delicious!”) while Mary rewards herself for a job well done with an orange “rrrrrrum punch!” If only!
If only there was a palatable, personalized and fully customized remedy for each of my weaknesses and blunders, for one! But also: If only the same product could magically tailor to different people’s tastes! Wouldn’t that be the stuff of dreams?
As far as flavor-changing liquid medicine goes, at this point in time, maybe yes. But apply that same metaphor to music, and I have good news to share: If you feel like you got your feet (metaphorically) wet from being immersed in the 2025 news cycle too long, we have exactly what you need, and it comes in the form of a piano duo that will magically change color according to your musical taste!
Yes, Anderson & Roe have that fantastical quality. Not only are they brilliant and boundless barometers of the world they live in, absorbing every influence and then carefully calibrating their artistry to reflect the zeitgeist and the social temperature, they also have the marvelous ability to discern the timeless, enduring beauty in music across multiple genres. If you’re a staunch classical music lover, you’ll be thrilled by their approach to Beethoven and the ingenuity with which they transfigure well-known themes into brand new guises. If rock and post-rock is more to your liking, you’ll be dazzled and impressed by how their stripping away of vocal lines distill already compelling music to something even more evocative and vigorous. Sigur Ros and Radiohead converse flawlessly with the likes of Bizet and Brahms. Leonard Bernstein shares the stage with Leonard Cohen. The music becomes a liquid medicine – all from the same bottle, but changing color to accommodate different needs, bridge different gaps, heal different wounds, boost different moods.
You may be thinking that you don’t need any musical medicine, but trust us when we say: You do! (And consuming it is it’s even more fun than saying “Rrrrrum punch!”)
Buy tickets to Anderson & Roe’s Boundless performance on October 14th at Lincoln Hall here.
And if you need a healthy dosage of soul-cleansing magic sooner, don’t miss Boris Giltburg’s performance on Sunday, October 5th. He is bound to leave you feeling like you jumped through a beautiful chalk drawing, into an alternative reality.