He is a seasoned pianist with an Island legacy that echoes through the streets of Oak Bluffs, where he spent a 20-year run entertaining guests at David’s Island House. She is a teenage singing prodigy who won the chance to perform with the Boston Pops, a homegrown celebrity just beginning to leave her footprint on the musical world.
David Crohan and Katie Mayhew are two solo artists exceptional in their own right. But this summer, the sought-after musicians came together for performances that proved that too much of a good thing can be a very good thing indeed.
Tomorrow night they will reunite onstage at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown to support another local musical act, in a concert to raise money for the Minnesingers’ spring trip to Prague.
David: I give concerts, usually in the spring, although last year it was in the summer, for COMSOG, which is the Community Solar Greenhouse. The format of the concerts has always included one or more guests. Last year the lady who was my contact with COMSOG asked me if I would consider having Katie Mayhew as my guest.
I’ve lived in Florida now for some time so I hadn’t followed her saga, and I didn’t know who she was. When she told me she was, I think at the time she was 16, and how she had won the Boston Pops [High School Sing-off] competition, of course I was interested.
Before that time I did another concert in the Tabernacle. I thought it might be a good idea to have her in this concert as well, for us to get to know each other a little bit. Her mother had sent me some DVDs of her singing. And I was very taken with her.
The first time I met her was at one of the two rehearsals I had with all of the people who were participating in this concert the day before it. I was very interested to have the experience of hearing her and playing with her. When it happened it was, for me, as if we had known each other musically all our lives. We’ve met four times. And I feel that we have a musical bond that would suggest a far longer acquaintance. I’ve accompanied some very fine singers over the years and she’s right at the pinnacle of the list of the people that I’ve worked with.
She has a very youthful voice. It’s very strong and lovely and pure, but still young sounding, which for her is a wonderful thing. Her interpretations of this music are very mature. She sings with great feeling and great affection for all the music that she does and it just emanates very clearly. And I like to think that that’s the way I approach music.
Music really was the center of my life from the time I was three years old. By the time I was 15 or 16, I would say I was at the level of confidence that [Katie] is now. The basic skills were already there and that’s the way it is with her. She has this adult quality of performing that I was just learning to acquire at her age. And it’s a very exciting process. It brought back a lot of great memories for me to think about that part of my life when I heard her and worked with her.
When they asked me to do this Minnesingers’ event with her I was thrilled because I didn’t think I’d get another chance to work with her until next summer. I’ve talked to her after the concerts and so forth, but we’ve not spent a lot of interactive time together. But at one level I know her better than I know many other people in this life. Particularly when two people [perform together], that’s what happens. And it’s a wonderful part of life.
Katie: I’m not really sure how David heard about me, because people usually just call the house and my mom tells me about these things. We have a mutual friend, so I think maybe she told him about me. I didn’t know too much about him. I hadn’t really ever heard the name before. He lived here kind of before my time.
I started working with him this summer and we did two concerts together, so that was the beginning of that. He did an amazing job. My favorite composer is Stephen Sondheim so I sing pretty much all of his music. He had never played Sondheim before and he was just completely ready to delve right into that and play. It’s really nice that he’s so open and willing to do that. [Because Mr. Crohan is blind] he had to learn Sondheim’s music by ear, and that’s incredible in itself, because Sondheim’s music is so complex. I think we probably sent him the tapes a month or so in advance. And then we only practiced like twice before we performed.
I think that the first performance went really, really well. I felt good about it, and I think David felt really good about it. It was just a lot of fun.
He definitely had his own take on the music. The way he played the music was different than I’d ever been accompanied before. He added so much to it. Sometimes he felt that he should lead this part of the song and I thought I should lead the part of the song too. We’re both solo artists, and I’m kind of used to working with accompanists rather than a solo artist. It was confusing, but I got a lot of really positive feedback from the audience. I heard, numerous times, people saying, “Oh you guys work so well together.” I guess it worked, but it was just kind of funny to notice that about both of us.
It’s fun to be with someone who has the same kind of passion for music as you do. I’ve been going to children’s theatre camp since I was six years old, and that’s when I started singing in public. And I kept going until I was 16, so 10 years. That’s where I performed most. But working with him has been a lot of fun.
It’s incredible to just listen to him, let alone to watch him. If you’re standing in front of him and you can’t see his fingers on the piano you would swear that it was more than one person playing. You can’t even imagine that he’s the one playing all the notes. He’s such an incredible artist.
David is just an incredible person. He’s so kind, and he’s really willing to learn new things.
We’re both so passionate about what we do. I think that we both just feel really strongly about music. And so when two people who have that same passion get together, it works. You bounce off each other and give each other ideas.
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