Mada & Hugh Piano Duo

S01-E07 - Greg DiStefano is the grandson of John DiStefano, who founded The Victor Cafe in Philadelphia, a famous Italian restaurant where the waitstaff all sing operatic arias during dinner. Madalina interviews Greg and explores the rich history of this remarkable mecca for music lovers.

https://victorcafe.com/

https://madahugh.com

https://madahugh.com/podcast

In South Philadelphia, there is a special restaurant called The Victor Cafe, where the waitstaff sing opera arias while patrons enjoy a wonderful Italian meal. The Victor Cafe saw some of the world's most prominent musicians pass through their doors, and the walls of the restaurant are covered with their portraits.

Earlier this year, Madalina had the opportunity to interview one of the restaurant's owners, Greg DiStefano. We'll get to that interview in the next two episodes - for now, Madalina shares the incredible history of The Victor Cafe and its amazing connection to some of the earliest music technologies - the Edison cylindrical Phonograph and the Victor Victrola Gramophone.

Our musical selection is by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, "Air de chasse sicilien", or "Sicilien Hunting Song", from his set of 6 little pieces for piano 4-hands.

https://madahugh.com/podcast

S01-E05 - Happy Halloween Everyone! In this episode, we play a spooky 4-hand piano version of Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre", arranged by Australian pianist & composer Wendy Hiscocks. This piece has been featured in pop culture and Disney cartoons and is a must-listen for the Halloween season.

The Mada & Hugh Piano Duo Podcast is sponsored by Cunningham Piano - https://cunninghampiano.com - they've been so generous to provide pianos and production space for our show! Today we get to play on a gorgeous 7' Bösendorfer 214 VC piano, the perfect instrument to bring out all the orchestral colors of "Danse Macabre"!

Madalina comes from Romania, home of Transylvania and the legend of Vlad the Impaler and vampire tales galore - but they don't celebrate Halloween in her country!

In any case, we hope you enjoy this spooky selection, and we wish you a happy (and safe) Halloween!

https://madahugh.com/podcast

S01-E04 - In this episode, we share our love for our favorite city in the world: New York. And what better artist to celebrate New York with than Billy Joel? We wrote a 4-hand piano arrangement of "Lullabye", written for his daughter who asked what happens after we die? We wanted to incorporate aspects of a lullaby in this performance, where both pianists play in an embrace.

https://madahugh.com/podcast S01-E03 - We continue our discussion about extended piano techniques with "Sabre Dance" by Aram Khatchaturian, fabulously arranged for piano 4-hands by Greg Anderson from the Anderson & Roe piano duo. We show various ways of playing "glissando", which is a technique for rapidly sliding on the piano. And since the piano itself is a percussion instrument, why not add some additional percussion with a tambourine? All in all, extended piano techniques help make the piano sound much more like a full orchestra!

You can purchase a copy of Greg's arrangement of "Sabre Dance" at https://www.andersonroe.com/scores-files/khachaturian-sabre-dance

S01-E02 - One of the best things about being a piano duo is exploring all the ways a piano can be played and the special tools that help us extend our musical capabilities. In this episode, we explore extended piano techniques with a mysterious piece by Turkish pianist/composer Fazil Say, "Winter Morning in Istanbul", where we use window squeegees to dampen the strings to produce the sounds of a Turkish lute called the "Ud" or "Oud". In order to reach into the strings, we are reading the sheet music using two iPads placed on Grand Stand music racks that let us push the music further back into the piano. And for turning pages hands free, we use an AirTurn together with the iPad app "forScore" that has a neat feature allowing one person to turn sheet music pages on both iPads at the same time.

Product links:

1. The Grand Stand: https://amzn.to/3STOOnj

2. AirTurn hands free page turner pedal: https://amzn.to/3CxmQsf

https://madahugh.com

S01-E01 - Mada & Hugh is a new piano duo comprised of Romanian-born pianist Madalina Danila and Curtis alumni Hugh Sung. In this premiere episode, we introduce ourselves and explore the question posed by the love theme from the 1978 movie "Superman", "Can You Read My Mind?" Piano duets are among the most challenging forms of musical ensemble, requiring precise coordination and unique athletics to form an artistic cohesion, and certainly challenging us to learn to read each others' minds in the process!