Rapa Nui Odyssey —Mahani Teave, piano (Rubicon 1066)
After studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and then in Berlin, Mahani Teave was destined for a glittering career on the international concert stage. She won the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition in 1999, and was named a Steinway & Sons artist. Instead, she returned to her home on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, a term that applies to the island, its indigenous Polynesian people and the language they speak. In 2012, Ms. Teave established The Easter Island Music School, receiving the Advancement of Women Award from Scotiabank for her leadership and work on the island promoting music. Then, in 2018, David Fulton, a software executive and collector of rare musical instruments, was on a cruise that stopped at Easter Island. The Music School invited passengers to a recital by its students, and the event ended with Mahani Teave playing on an old upright piano. Mr. Fulton was stunned. ‘I could not have been more astonished if Horowitz or Rubinstein had stepped onstage…we were being treated to a serious performance by a major utterly extraordinary artist…it was totally unexpected, uplifting, and deeply moving: a musical feast’. Rapa Nui Odyssey—Mahani Teave’s program of Bach, Liszt, Handel, Scriabin, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff—is the result of this chance meeting, and WCLV features the disc in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. You can find a video previewing a documentary about Mahani Teave and her work on Easter Island here. ('Purchase CD' below sends you to the Rubicon Classics website.)