Some people say the piano is a hard instrument to play with just two hands. But add four hands to the mix and the result
is spectacular.
The Mauchley Duo is a husband-and-wife team that creates just such a mix. Jay and Sandy Mauchley presented their first faculty recital of the year to a crowd of 170 people Tuesday night in the Lionel Hampton School of Music recital hall.

The Mauchley’s are both professors of piano at the LHSOM, although Sandy Mauchley is officially retired and teaches part-time. The University of Idaho plays a key part in the Mauchley story because it is where the pair first met and began playing music together. 27 years later, they’re still at it.
“It’s good for our students to have a model,” Sandy Mauchley said about the faculty recital series. “You learn a lot about what it takes to be a performer and it shows you how to help your students become better performers.”

The Mauchleys spend a lot of their time doing just that. When not teaching at UI, they are going around the country teaching master classes, adjudicating competitions, giving workshops and playing concerts.
“I think that classical music … is an incredible gem,” Jay Mauchley said. “I have a very strong appreciation for it and I feel compelled to play it. Live performances are becoming fewer. I think it’s important to keep the tradition alive.”

Faculty recitals help them do this. A variety of them are offered each month from faculty of varying instruments and styles who often collaborate with one another to offer a greater diversity for their listeners.
“We choose a major piece or two and then choose pieces that fit around that, a variety,” Jay Mauchley said.

The Mauchley Duo followed this philosophy in their Tuesday night concert program, mixing Brahms and Mozart with lesser known composers like Shostakovich and Lutoslawski. With their padded, black piano benches side-by-side, the pair shared a single piano for half of their pieces. Years of long practice together showed in the easy way they shared the responsibility of turning the pages of the musical score and in the simple harmony of their fingers dancing over the keys.

“I love how thorough they are with learning the specifics of each piece, but at the same time they don’t lose the musicality of it,” said Patsi Heinemann, a piano performance major who has worked with the Mauchleys.
The Mauchleys are true performing artists. They played just as easily when dueling one another from separate pianos as they did when sharing the stage with fellow faculty members William Wharton and Ferenc Cseszko.

“The sharing of a musical performance is wonderful. It’s sharing ideas,” Sandy Mauchley said.
The Mauchleys continue to share their ideas, whether through performances at UI, appearing as guest artists for the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra, serving as faculty artists for music festivals around the country, or just teaching their students how to play that one tricky spot in a piece.
“The most important thing is we enjoy doing it,” Jay
Mauchley said.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.