Sat Feb. 27

While many may know him best for his television and radio appearances as host of WGBH’s “From the Top” (www.fromthetop.org), concert pianist Christopher O’Riley enjoys a musical life that goes much deeper and broader than promoting the best young musicians in the country.

When he is not accompanying the teen phenomenons, O’Riley can often be seen and heard expanding the boundaries of classical music in other ways. In recent years, these have included pianistic reinterpretations by the legendary likes of Radiohead, Elliot Smith and Nick Drake, On his latest recording, "Out of My Hands," O’Riley expands even further into the catalogs of everyone from Pink Floyd to Portishead and The Bad Plus to The Smiths.

On Sat. February 27 at 8 p.m., O’Riley will return to Boston to perform his music live at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “It is a thrill to bring Christopher O’Riley to perform here himself,” says ICA Director of Public Programs. David Henry, who notes that the first public perfomrance at the ICA was a resital by young stars of “From the Top.”” “He shares with the ICA a commitment to excellence in art and a willingness to bend traditional genres.”

Though O’Riley tours exhaustively –both with “FtT” and on his own, he took a moment to catch up wit his Boston roots as he prepares to come back to his broadcast home.

JSI: How are you best known? When people recognize you, is it for “FtT” or your concerts and CDs? How would you most like to be known?

O’Riley: As a result of [its] nation-wide carriage, and the occasional PBS station playing episodes of our first two TV seasons, I have a weekly audience of about a million or so, [so it is]hard to get around “From The Top” being my primary cultural identity. That said, I think the empathy and support I receive in the good will of the “FtT” audience gives me the confidence and encouragement to follow through on all the other things my career encompasses: my Classical appearances in recital and with various orchestras, my records of pop arrangements and my subsequent recitals either devoted exclusively to that repertoire, or incorporating Classical pieces interwoven among appropriately complementing pop arrangements. I have a large audience who trusts me enthusiastically. In the end, I’m very happy being known for a wide variety of musical and media activities I enjoy whole-heartedly.

JSI: As “FtT” is based in Boston, is Beantown like a second home?

O’Riley: Seems that way, although we’re only in Boston for shows about half a dozen times a year. The “FtT” offices are there, but we do the bulk of our tapings around the country.

JSI: How do you feel your recordings have stretched the boundaries of classical music and its audiences?

O’Riley: I really approached making the recordings with the idea of playing music I love. That’s always the primary motive behind any music I choose to perform. Further, what I’ve been doing in terms of arranging is an activity that composers have been doing for hundreds of years, assaying orchestral works (Liszt made arrangements of Beethoven Symphonies, Stravinsky his own Petrouchka Suite), organ works (lots of composers and I myself have made piano versions) and other things not originally intended for the piano. I’m essentially celebrating the wide palette of color and expression of the piano, making it capable of evoking a five piece rock band or a symphony orchestra. I also respond to music of interesting textural ingenuity and original harmonic invention, whether it be Ravel or Radiohead. I’m sure I’ve stretched the boundaries of what music is acceptable in the concert hall as well as what’s fun to play in a club or on the beach at a rock festival. It’s been a fun ride, thus far.

JSI: Do people tell you that you introduced them to classical? Is that your intent?

O’Riley: My intent is just to play what I love, but I do get a kick out of kinds writing in to christopheroriely.com and saying “I love your Radiohead stuff, and I see you’re playing a Mozart concert in San Diego soon. I’ve always wanted to check him out.” So, now they know someone in music they admire and trust, they’ll take a flyer on Amadeus. I think that’s cool.

JSI: On your new album, Out of My Hands, you add personal renditions of the likes of REM, Pink Floyd, the Smiths, and even fellow piano-movers The Bad Plus. How do you choose your repertoire and how does it fit in with your classical proclivities?

O’Riley: Even when I first did [my Radiohead tribute album]  "True Love Waits" for Sony, I’d been doing arrangements by all kinds of different bands. Out of My Hands is just the first collection of works that’ve been percolating for a number of years. I never approach a body of work with the intent to make a recording project of various songs by one band. I’m rather more a creature of obsession, finding that there’s a song that I just can’t stop listening to. Sometimes it’s a matter of habit, like with Radiohead, and other times, it comes out of the blue, like when I chose to do “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana. As I’ve said, it’s basically a two-fold attraction: harmony that wrests the listenter’s attention, and a compelling and original texture from which to draw and design an effective piano texture.

JSI: What worlds are left to conquer for Christopher O’Riley?

O’Riley: I conducted for the very first time last season, a concert with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra which included the gargantuan Brahms: Symphony #1. I’d like to do more along that line.

Tickets: $28.

(contributed by Matt Robinson)
 
100 Northern Ave., 617-876-4275 or 617-478-3103, www.WorldMusic.org or www.icaboston.org.