"The Piano Has Something to Say” is a stand-up piano comedy show where the pianist becomes both storyteller and comedian, trading jokes and musical punchlines with a mischievous grand piano that constantly ‘talks back.’ Blending sharp stand-up humor with virtuoso playing, the show turns the pianist’s fingers into characters with their own personalities, mixes musical parodies with unexpected improvisations, and brings the audience directly into the performance through playful interaction and spontaneous challenges.
Warm, witty, and musically bold, it transforms a traditional piano concert into a lively three-way conversation between the pianist, the instrument, and the audience, an unpredictable cabaret where music and comedy collide.
Production Credits
Rostislava Pashkevitch - Ngobeni - writer and director
Wandile Mgcodo - lighting designer
About the Artists
Rostislava Pashkevitch-Ngobeni carries within her the music of three countries. Born in Moscow, Russia and shaped by the conservatoire culture of Sofia, Bulgaria, she first stepped onto a stage at the age of six ,pressed into service by her grandmother who saw no distinction between readiness and destiny, and performed a prelude by Anna Magdalena Bach to a hall full of women gathered to mark International Women's Day. That early moment of unplanned courage would set the tone for a life lived in service to the transformative power of the arts.
Rostislava is a pianist, a director, a composer, a playwright and a builder of stages ,someone who moves fluidly between the intimacy of a solo recital and the grand orchestration of musical theatre, between the scholarly and the soulful.
Her repertoire refuses borders. She has brought to life the music of Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone, of Aretha Franklin and Bob Marley ,all refracted through her own distinctive artistic voice .
Recipient of the Amaqhawe , Our Heroes Achiever's Award, and The Golden Lyre Award she has spoken of her purpose in words that resonate like music.
She brings that same philosophy to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, which is a reminder that art, at its most powerful, is not a performance but a conversation between souls.
- Venue: Beethoven Room
- Location: Rhodes Music Department
- Ticket price: ZAR 100.00
- Programme type: The Fringe
- Genre: Cabaret & Musical Theatre
- Duration: 45 minutes
-
Ages:
ALL AGES
