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SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah teenagers, who have played piano duets together since they were 8 years old, won a national piano duet competition on March 22.
Alinda Heder and Madeleine Arnold have been best friends since they were preschoolers and lived in the same Pleasant Grove neighborhood. They have also been taking piano lessons for just as long, often from the same teacher. Both teens developed a deep love for music from a young age.
“I kind of begged (my mom) to (let me) take lessons,” Arnold said. “My mom said when I was a child, she had to ground me from the piano if she wanted me to get anything else done.”
Now both juniors in high school, Heder and Arnold have competed in various music competitions, sometimes as soloists and sometimes with duet performances. The girls decided to compete in the Music Teachers National Association Senior Piano Duet Competition and went from practicing two hours each day to three to five hours a day, Heder said.
“It was a lot of time, but when me and Maddie get together, it’s not even practicing. It’s just fun,” Heder said.
The teens won the state competition in October and advanced to the regional southwest division in Santa Barbara, California. They won that competition in January and moved on to the national competition held in Las Vegas on March 22.
During the national competition, the teens played four pieces of music, including Stravinsky’s “Chez Petrouchka” and “The Enchanted Garden” by Maurice Ravel. During their 25-minute performance, Arnold said they were a little nervous but felt prepared.
“The nerves are always there — it’s kind of like a big deal and it was kind of a scary thing — but we’d paid the price and we’d worked really hard before,” Arnold said. “So then I think walking in, our mentality is just like, let’s go share this music.”
Heder said they were excited to be judged by composer Dennis Alexander during the competition because the first duet they played together was written by him.
“He was kind of like our first experience with duets,” Heder said. “We got to play one of his pieces and he was judging our last competition together, so it was kind of cool.”
Heder’s father was assigned to be an LDS mission president in Athens, Greece, and her family will be moving to Greece in June. As a result, the girls will no longer be able to compete together, which made their victory that much sweeter.
“Before we decided to do this competition, we had no idea that I’d be moving,” Heder said. “So we were so, so, so glad that we did because we were able to spend a lot more time together and we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do it next year with me living in Greece. So we were really happy that we did it.”
The teens won first place and each received $1,000. Heder’s mother, LeeAnn Heder, said the girls gave a perfect performance at the national competition and were overjoyed to win.
“We were all shocked and awed,” LeeAnn Heder said. “They gave the performance of a lifetime. It just all came together. … Everything lined up. It was not just notes on a piano. It was the emotion and the energy and everything.”
Arnold said they owe the victory to their current piano teacher, Weber State University professor Ralph van der Beek.
“He has incredibly high expectations of us but also helps us always keep the right perspective,” Arnold said. “He taught me that at the top of Bach's compositions, Bach often inscribed ‘S.D.G.’ This stands for Soli Deo gloria, which means "For the glory of God alone." Before every competition, the last thing my mom says to me is, ‘S.D.G.’ I am able to forget about myself and give the gift of music to those in the audience ….”
