The M&M Piano Duo first played at Chautauqua in 2019, when pianists and Voice Program faculty — and longtime friends — Kanae Matsumoto Giampietro and Martin Dubé joined forces for a recital of piano duets, some for two pianos and some for four-hand playing.
At times, pianists playing duets together for the first time can struggle to adjust to each other’s styles and musical understandings, but Dubé and Matsumoto Giampietro have found that they easily meshed.
“Sometimes I have the illusion of — we’re playing together, but it’s as if I’m playing alone,” Matsumoto Giampietro said then. “Because it’s so inclusive, because we’re so in sync, I don’t feel like we’re two separate entities.”
Chautauquans will have a chance to witness this playing at 4:15 p.m. Saturday in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, when the M&M Piano Duo, joined by the Porch Ensemble, performs as part of the Chautauqua Chamber Music Resident Artist Series.
Saturday’s “Recital for Piano(s) and Very Many Hands” has a program that includes, among other works, Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye for 4 hands, Fauré’s Dolly for 4 hands, Op. 56, Rachmaninoff’s 2 pieces for 6 hands, Albert Lavignac’s Galop-Marche for 8 hands and — as if that wasn’t enough hands — Strauss’ Radetzky March for 2 Pianos and 12 Hands
The Porch Ensemble, so named for the porch of the Logan Hall, which houses dormitories for School of Music faculty, includes Julius Abrahams, Donna Gill, Bénédicte Jourdois and Jinhee Park, all on piano.
The M&M Piano Duo is so named as a combination of their names (Martin and Matsumoto) and a tribute to Marlena Malas, the late director of the Voice Program, to whom they credit their presence at Chautauqua.
“Without her we (would not be) here,” Matsumoto Giampietro told the Daily in 2019. “We owe her a lot: how we listen to music, how we feel music, how we listen to each other, how we love each other. … She is a very important person in our lives.”
