{image1}If you missed Radiohead when they played this summer at Alpine Valley, you've now got another chance to hear the Oxford, England band's music in concert. That's because acclaimed pianist Christopher O'Riley, who has released a disc of classical piano readings of Radiohead music, visits Milwaukee Wed., Sept. 24 for an 8 p.m. concert at The Pabst Theater. Tickets are only $15 and $10.
"True Love Waits" (Sony Classical) finds O'Riley boiling 15 Radiohead favorites -- from five of the group's discs, from "Pablo Honey" to "Amnesiac" -- down to their melodic and harmonic basics. Among the tunes he explores are "Everything In Its Right Place," "Knives Out," "Black Star," "Karma Police", "Let Down," "Airbag," "Subterranean Homesick Alien," "Thinking About You," "Exit Music (For a Film)," "You," "Bulletproof," "Fake Plastic Trees," "I Can't," "Motion Picture Soundtrack" and the title track.
Upon first hearing the band's "OK Computer" disc, O'Riley was hooked, says the prize-winning concert pianist.
"The band takes craft seriously," he says of Radiohead's "pristine songwriting and experimentation.
"I've listened to everything I could get my hands on, including b-sides and rare live tracks. Transcribing music is not my usual area of expertise as an interpreter, yet on occasion throughout my concert career I have made piano versions of music I especially covet ... it was not until my obsessions with Radiohead that I felt compelled to tackle dozens of songs as a single project."
O'Riley has had a thriving traditional concert career with solo recitals, chamber music and orchestral performances of the standard piano literature, as well as keyboard works that range from the English Renaissance to the modern tango. O'Riley has nabbed prizes at the Van Cliburn, Leeds, Busoni and Montreal piano competitions, and is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Prize.
Tickets for the show are $10 and $15 and can be purchased by calling (800) 511-1552 or at The Pabst Theatre, 144 E. Wells St.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
