Album Notes

Netherlands-based Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo recorded their concert at Duke University on 2nd Nov 2010, part of their coast-to-coast tour of the USA which began in mid-October in Boston and ended in Maui in late November 2010.

Included in this album are the first recordings of new arrangements of Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and Vivaldi's Winter from the Four Seasons for piano and guitar. Besides arranging music for his duo, guitarist Robert Bekkers has a long list of arrangements to edit and public to quench the thirst of duos world-wide.

Extracts of this concert were later performed and recorded for KUHF Houston Public Radio's Front Row Programme. The interview included stories behind the choice of music, arrangement, and decisions regarding de Falla's Spanish Dance. Dutch composer Gijs van Dijk wrote "Abstract and Dance" for the duo after attending their benefit house concert in November 2007, prior to their first USA tour.

Anne Ku graduated from Duke Unversity in 1986, the same year she gave a solo recital in the Nelson Music Room, not realising she would return years later to perform with her duo. The prestigious AB Duke Scholarship supported her studies there. She composed and premiered "Adieu for a Piano" and "Opus 13" while studying composition at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands.

Together with "Makawao Live 2007" this CD will be signed and sold at concerts where either Robert Bekkers or Anne Ku perform.

More information, including full album notes (from the live concert programme notes), can be downloaded from http://www.pianogitar.com/cd/