Today's Fredlines: August 25, 2009 Archive

Served in the green room: tuna

Posted at 11:03 AM on August 25, 2009 by Fred Child (4 Comments)

Nora lives in Cherry Hills, New Jersey. One of her human companions (Betsy Alexander) is a pianist and composer. According to Nora's online autobiography, she's been playing piano for several years now:

I jumped up on the bench of the big black piano and put my paws on the keys...I discovered I could make beautiful music, just like the humans. It was easy...

Nora's first youtube video has been viewed about 15 million times. Which led to sequels, a full product line, and even licensing availabilities. None too surprising these days...but then this happened in June. Lithuanian conductor Mindaugas Piecaitis wrote a 4-minute orchestral piece around recordings of Nora at the piano. And at a concert by the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in Lithuania, he projected videos of Nora overhead while the orchestra played. This made the viral rounds in June, but if you haven't seen it yet...

The result takes the cute-cuddly-cat-video genre into a completely new realm. All at once, I find myself wondering "what is Nora thinking while she plays, what is she really DOING?", appreciating the use of video at a "classical" concert, loving the carefully-timed combination of technology and acoustic orchestra (tango at 2:16, key change at 2:49, flute answers Nora at 2:54!), secretly wishing *I'd* thought of this first, saying "ooooo, that's so cuuuuute"...and enjoying the music as music.

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