Bente Hansen and Jesse Plessis may be 20 some years apart in age, but when they get together they are like little kids— and best friends.
Whether engaged in a spirited discussion of who is most like composer and nineteenth century music critic Robert Schumann’s fictional and contrasting music critics Florestan and Eusebius, or just raving about their Wednesday afternoon Christmas show at the Lethbridge Public Library, they are clearly comfortable in each other’s company.
“I’m Florestan because I’m always the one talking about metaphysics and correcting people’s grammar,” Plessis laughed.
For now they are excited about playing Mozart’s D Major Sonata and several Hungarian dances by Brahms plus some Appalacian Christmas songs from Perscichetti.
Hansen is well known for not only being a popular teacher at the Univeristy of Lethbridge — and is best known for teaching her class “The History of Rock and Roll,” which is also a popular feature on CKXU, 88.3 FM, the University based community radio station, but she is also best known as the piano behind most of New West Theatre’s musical revues.
Plessis is busy working on his masters degree in music at the University of Brandon, but took his undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge, graduating a couple years ago.
“I never taught him, but he approached me with this piece of music he composed and we just clicked,” Hansen said.
They perform a couple shows a year— in the Spring and in the Winter.
The last project they performed together was the entire Beatles album “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club ” band, which Plessis arranged for piano.
He noted he shares a similar musical philosophy with Hansen.
“We have a lot of musical influences,” Plessis observed. He has a show in Sparwood the very next day as well.
While they won’t be perfoming anything as extensive as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band ” or the Nutcracker this time, owing to lack of practice time, Hansen being involved with New West’s Production “Light It Up,” and the difficulty of getting a venue for the performance, they are looking forward to this Christmas themed show.
“It’s a duet, so it will be one piano and four hands,” Hansen described.
Hansen is full of praise for Plessis, noting he won a CMC (Canadian Music Competition) competition and will have the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra perform one of his pieces.
“I feel like I’m extrememly fortunate to have him in my life,” said Hansen, who doesn’t play her own concerts very often.
“He’s the talent side, I’m more of the monetary side. He’ll come back here and eat everything in my home,” she laughed.
They chose the music for the concert based on several factors, not the least of which was songs they could pull togehter without extensive practice.
“ We did the Nutcarcker the last tme we played (for Christmas) and we practiced it for nine hours straight,” Plessis said.
