Departments
Arts
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Week of 13 March 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 23 |
Arts
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Anthony and Joseph Paratore
will perform material from their new CD at a
concert to benefit the Paratore Scholarship at the
School for the Arts.
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Four hands, one heart
by Judith Sandler
The popular Paratore Piano Duo -- known to a wide audience since Boston Pops Conductor Arthur Fiedler took the brothers under his wing -- really started out as the Paratore Quintet.
Anthony (SFA'66) and his brother, Joseph (SFA'70), inherited their musical sensibilities from their father, Anthony Sr., who encouraged the development of musical talent among his children. Once a part-time band leader, Anthony Sr. often brought his five children along with him to gigs. "After a while we put together a little family act," remembers Joanne, one of the three Paratore daughters. "Anthony played the piano, Joe was on drums, and we sisters sang. We performed at weddings, benefits, and hospitals all over New England and New York for about 15 years." Joe remembers the family band as "a very joyous time. We played through our teens and into college. We grew up making music together."
Joseph and Anthony continued to sharpen their musical skills as they grew older, evolving into an accomplished duo and coming to the attention of Arthur Fiedler. Playing with the Pops for the first time in 1970, the brothers performed frequently in Youth Concerts, at Tanglewood, and on the Esplanade. Fiedler also invited them as featured soloists when he conducted symphony orchestras throughout the country. The duo's connection with the Pops, and then with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, continued under former Pops Assistant Conductor Harry Ellis Dickson as well as former Pops Conductor John Williams, who invited the brothers to join the Pops for PBS's Evening at Pops 20th Anniversary Special. And on March 9 the brothers performed with the BSO for the annual Salute to Symphony fundraiser, which will air April 3 at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 5.
Fielder wasn't alone in appreciating the talents of the Paratore brothers. After winning first prize in the Munich International Music Competition in 1974, the duo's career took off. Their résumé now includes performances with some of the world's finest symphony orchestras (Berlin, Vienna, and New York Philharmonic) and appearances on television (Today Show and Tonight Show), radio (All Things Considered and Performance Today), and at festivals all over the world (Salzburg, Spoleto, and Mostly Mozart).
The San Francisco Chronicle has called the brothers "today's finest piano duo," and they've been praised in the New York Times for their "matching poetic sensibilities." The joy that the Paratore brothers bring to each of their performances "is very contagious," says Wilbur Fulbright, former SFA music division director, who has known the brothers since Anthony was a freshman in 1962. "They are such interesting performers because they establish an immediate rapport with the audience. And the brothers are great technicians as well as amazingly proficient musicians who also complement each other. One never tries to steal the show from the other; they constantly play together as a team."
Associate Professor of Piano Maria Clodes Jaguaribe, a former classmate of the Paratores, al