Pop Alchemy

Australian-Vietnamese pianist Van-Anh Nguyen mixes her love of great pop music with a passion for her instrument’s classical masterpieces in an ingenious way. Some of the tracks move seamlessly between these old and new worlds: Rachmaninoff and Destiny’s Child find shared harmonies and patterns, as do Beethoven and Britney Spears (who knew that the Moonlight Sonata and “…Baby One More Time” could happily coexist?) and even TLC and Tchaikovsky. Elsewhere, Van-Anh delves into more introspective territory, performing beautifully crafted arrangements of pop ballads, including a-ha’s “Take on Me,” Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself,” and Sam Smith’s powerful “Too Good at Goodbyes.”