The release of a new CD of music for two pianos is testament to the two performers’ funding ingenuity, brilliant musicianship, commitment to expand their profession’s repertoire, and perseverance in the face of illness.
Associate professors of music Karen and Jeffrey Savage, also known as 88SQUARED, have played piano in both the four-hand form (at one instrument) and two-piano form since they met more than two decades ago. Over the years, their complementary styles evolved to award-winning heights.
As invitations to perform increased worldwide, the married couple felt limited by the relatively few compositions written for two pianos. So Karen applied for a new faculty seed grant through the WSU Office of Research to support the commissioning and recording of a new work.
“We wanted to build our own repertoire and help build the available body of works for others to perform,” she said.
Leveraging the research seed grant, the couple gathered additional support to commission a new work by one of the world’s foremost modern composers, Lowell Liebermann, and to fund a recording of his collected two-piano works.
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