First piano concerto for cat

“Catcerto” is a four-minute piano concerto for chamber orchestra and cat composed by Mindaugas Piecaitis (Lithuania). The piece – in which the orchestra accompanies a video recording of a cat pawing at notes on a piano – was debuted at the Klaipeda Concert Hall in Klaipeda, Lithuania, on 5 June 2009, with Nora the cat at the piano.

Composer/conductor Piečaitis notated Nora’s melody from a video recording he had seen on YouTube then composed the orchestral accompaniment to match. The piece requires the orchestra to play live alongside Nora’s projected video footage. Nora is a rescue cat from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA, and is named after the painter Leonora Carrington. She was given a new lease of life by piano teacher Betsy Alexander and artist Burnell Yow. In 2009, Nora was named Cat of the Year in the annual ASPCA Humane Awards.