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They trained at Juilliard, an elite music school in New York City. The San Francisco Classical Voice describes them as “the most dynamic duo of this generation. Their recording of Piazzolla’s popular piece, “Libertango,” has over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe make up the popular piano duo Anderson & Roe. The two musicians come to WSU tomorrow to share their creative program with students and faculty.

WSU piano professor Karen Savage is responsible for bringing Anderson & Roe to campus. Savage got to know both performers personally when she attended Juilliard. She has worked with many other companies and organizations to make this performance happen.

“We’ve been wanting them here for a while because how popular, wonderful and exciting of performers they are,” Savage said. “Plus, it’ll be great to see some of my old friends.”

Anderson & Roe’s programs are always full of creativity, Savage said. Through this creativity, they are able to connect with many audience members.

“We love witnessing different reactions to our music. It’s one of our biggest goals to provide a variety of emotions for our audiences,” Roe said. “We’re hoping to impact all members of the audience, whether they love classical music or have never even heard of Rachmaninoff.”

Another goal of the duo is to break the stigma that classical music is always background music, Anderson said.

“While some classical music can sound like background music, what Liz and I focus on is hold-onto-your-seat or you’re-being-hit-with-a-ton-of-bricks music that is overwhelming and gripping,” Anderson said.

This performance is full of pieces both classical music enthusiasts and common college students will recognize. The first portion will include popular classical piano pieces by Mozart, Piazzolla and Rachmaninoff.

“The Rachmaninoff piece is unimaginably beautiful, and it’s so easy to get lost in the constant luxury of it,” Anderson said.

The second portion will appeal to the common college student, who has listened to more music by Radiohead and Queen. All of the music played during the second half of the concert originated in England, and much of it is rearrangements of classic rock tunes.

“We’ll be playing an arrangement of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and a song by Radiohead,” Anderson said. “These arrangements divert from the original material of the pieces and bring out classical elements.”

The program will conclude with “an epic, dueling gospel piano” arrangement of The Beatles’ popular song “Let It Be.”

“I’m looking forward to the whole British set,” Roe said. “I love the Radiohead piece because it’s incredibly epic and has virtuosic elements pulled from the classic rock, and the Beatles piece is a musical redemption of the chaos from the other pieces. This whole program is just totally rich and beautiful.”

A concert like this is important for college students to experience because of how little college students usually hear classical music live, Roe said.

“It’s important that everyone interface with live music – especially classical music,” she said. “Most of the time, the concert experience is Rihanna or a rock band. Classical music isn’t the most popular concert experience, but sometimes it can be incredibly energizing and have a complex realm of experiences for the audience.”

Anderson & Roe will take the stage at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Jones Theatre at Daggy Hall. Tickets are sold out as of Feb. 9.

“These are people that we [the music faculty] tell our students to listen to, so having them here live is very exciting,” Savage said. “This is a great chance to bring internationally-renowned artists to our campus to just celebrate music.”