Violin and piano duo synchronize onstage and off

By Jeff O'Brien

Friday, Oct. 31, 2008 | midnight

The two musicians worked in perfect unison, gliding over a wide range of notes and taking the listening audience on a journey back in time more than 200 years.

It was an evening of classical Beethoven in the Starbright Theater in Sun City Summerlin on Oct. 25, as violinist De Ann Letourneau and pianist Sandra Rivers played four of the celebrated composer's sonatas written from 1797 to 1802.

Letourneau, who lives in Peccole Ranch, is the concertmaster of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and has been playing the violin since age 8.

As concertmaster, Letourneau leads the orchestra's string section during performances.

"My job is to make sure all the strings have the same pace and everything is uniform," she said.

Her role with the Las Vegas Philharmonic constitutes the bulk of her time, but Letourneau also performs at private parties and concerts where string music is needed. She also gives private violin lessons at her home.

"It all adds up to a busy schedule, and plus I have three kids," she said. "I'm good at multi-tasking. But if I had more arms I'd be more effective."

Her friendship with Rivers began in 1989 when Letourneau was majoring in violin performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Rivers was the studio pianist at the school.

Rivers lives in Cincinnati and is now a professor of collaborative studies at the conservatory. She has traveled to several countries including Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Japan and Korea and has performed with Grammy Award-winning violinists Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell.

"She is such an amazing talent," Letourneau said. "I have the highest respect for her. She taught me so much about playing chamber music."

The two can often be found laughing and cracking jokes with one another, Rivers said.

"When we're together it's crazy," Rivers said. "We just have a good time. We take our music very seriously, but we don't take each other too seriously."

A strong synergy between violin and piano requires much more than just talent, Letourneau said.

"Our rehearsals are so easy because we know each other so well," she said. "There is a lot of non-verbal communication when we're on-stage. If something goes wrong, whether you miss a beat or your finger slips, you have to be able to recover. It requires a lot of trust."

The two plan to eventually record a CD together, although they aren't sure when. Schedules are fairly booked between Letourneau's local obligations and Rivers touring the country — she'll be performing in Delaware, Ohio and Washington, D.C., over the next 3 months.

Performing in sonatas, Letourneau said, gives her the opportunity to express both a composer's vision and her own musical ideas.

"It's a true form of expression," Letourneau said. "If I even get one person in the audience who was moved by my music, I feel like I did my job. And when you hear the applause as a performer, there's nothing like it."

Jeff O’Brien can be reached at 990-8957 or [email protected].