Panda Suite
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1988
- Publisher
- Palliser Music Publishing
Purchase or download
About this piece
Roberta Stephen wrote Panda Suite for cello and piano to celebrate the arrival of the first two pandas in Calgary during the 1988 Winter Olympics; the Alberta Women's Memory Project singles it out among her works. The suite has three short movements: "The Panda Dances," which Palliser Music describes as having "an adorable plodding quality"; "Panda March," in which "the cello and piano motor along in merry counterpoint"; and "Follow the Wind in the Bamboo," where "the piano tags along after the cello in canon." It was first published by Stephen's own firm, Alberta Keys Music Publishing (Calgary, 1995), whose catalogue passed to Palliser Music Publishing when she retired in 2014. Palliser now sells it with score and parts. The Royal Conservatory of Music (2016 Cello Syllabus) sets "The Panda Dances" and "Follow the Wind in the Bamboo" for Grade 4, List C. No commercial recording or YouTube performance could be found.
Technical overview
Three short movements (The Panda Dances; Panda March; Follow the Wind in the Bamboo) for cello and piano, with contrapuntal and canonic writing that calls for steady rhythm and ensemble awareness; two movements are RCM Grade 4 pieces. No score pages were available to confirm specific technical demands.