Two sisters, one voice
American piano duo sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton tell Rebecca Fox about getting caught in an Oktoberfest parade and what it is like to perform with their twin.
NOTHING beats the feeling of forgetting where ‘‘one of us ends and the other begins’’ when playing together with the same voice at one piano, twins Christina and Michelle Naughton say.
The sisters are visiting New Zealand for the first time to play with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra this month.
‘‘Needless to say, we are pumped.’’
They will play their favourite composer, Mozart’s, Concerto for Two Pianos in Dunedin.
‘‘There is something very special about all of Mozart’s music for four hands and two pianos.
‘‘He wrote these pieces to play with his sister, and you can feel the close relationship the two must have had. There is so much room for witty dialogue, character changes and beauty.’’
The tour will also reunite the sisters with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra music director Edo de Waart, who has known the pair since they were students.
‘‘The sisters are marvellous musicians, charismatic and wonderfully talented.’’
The sisters are also looking forward to spending time with de Waart ‘‘in his new musical home’’.
Growing up learning and playing the piano on their own, the pair, who were born in Princeton, New Jersey, discovered the joy of playing together when they were teenagers.
It was while they were training at the Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music they began performing as a duo.