Throughout the world, critics and viewers have used these words to describe Alan Mandel's piano-playing style: "spellbinding," "intoxicating," "torrential," "transcendent" and "powerful." He has performed for audiences in 51 countries in Europe, Asia, the former Soviet Union, Africa and throughout the United States. He has packed audiences into Carnegie Hall in New York, composed over 100 songs, recorded over 30 albums and played hundreds of concerts from memory. Mandel, professor emeritus of music at AU, has been all around the world.
But he is emphatic and utterly serious when he states that there is no better place than AU.
"Of all the places that I have played, the place that I most enjoy playing is at American University," Mandel said. "I enjoy very much giving concerts and going to foreign countries and speaking with the people and playing music for them. I also enjoy very much making recordings and also being a composer. But one of my very favorite activities is teaching students at American University."
In terms of longevity, Mandel's commitment to teaching students is obvious - he has been a professor at AU since 1966. These days, Mandel teaches an Honors Program colloquium called Beethoven and European Civilization and often privately instructs a handful of piano students. Recently, he has been focusing on giving concerts, composing and is currently recording an album of his own songs.
Long before Mandel arrived at AU, he began his career at the age of 6, when he gave his first concert in New York, where he was born in 1935. Earlier, he was called a child prodigy at age 3 after coming home from seeing "The Wizard of Oz" and spontaneously playing the music on the family piano. His mother, Tillie, a former accompanist for silent movies like "The Perils of Pauline," immediately recognized his talent.
Soon, Mandel attended school at The Institute for Modern Piano Technique, going on to The High School of Music and Art and then Juilliard, where he studied under Rosinna Lhevinne and Rudolph Serkin, whom Mandel describes as "of the great pianists of the twentieth century." After graduating from Juilliard, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, which, Mandel says "changed my life." The grant gave Mandel the chance to tour all over Europe giving concerts and launched his performing career.
Mandel names many people when asked who has inspired him. Among them are his mother, his wife Nancy, greats such as Chopin, Beethoven and Schumann, and musicians Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Elie Siegmeister. Siegmeister, Mandel's father-in-law, was "a great friend" of his. He introduced him to ragtime music, which Mandel often blends with classical music in concert, a dual part of his repertoire for which he is famous. Mandel also admires Charles Ives, whom he calls "the great composer of the twentieth century in American music." Mandel has received international acclaim for having discovered, transcribed, performed and recorded many pieces by Ives.
"It's a wonderful experience, because I try to give joy to the audience," Mandel said about performing. And though he performs many of his concerts from memory, he insists that he must practice and mentally prepare himself for each concert.
"My favorite word in the whole world is concentration," he said. "It's limitless. The more you concentrate, the more you can accomplish. It's a combination of concentration and spiritual qualities. So I work very hard to prepare for concerts. Any concert pianist who says that he doesn't work hard is not telling you the truth. It's hard work, but a joy ... to collaborate with the composer. You know, the composer composes a piece, and then the piece is dead - it's just written on music paper. And then it remains for the performer to renew it."
Regarding composers, he is not one to play favorites.
"My favorite composer is the composer whose music I'm playing at the moment," Mandel said. "But I wouldn't play a particular piece if I didn't believe in it. Right now, I'm extremely involved with Beethoven. Beethoven is one of the great figures in music history. He belongs in the same category as Shakespeare and Michelangelo and people like that."
Perhaps Mandel belongs in that virtuosic category as well. This Monday, Mandel will bring Beethoven to life in a concert at Kay Spiritual Life Center to benefit the Nicholas Vrenios Scholarship Fund, which was established by one of Mandel's former colleagues in honor of her son, a promising poet and photographer at Syracuse University who died in 1988 in the Pan Am flight 103 explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Mandel, who has no children of his own, said, "The students are my children." All his children, as well as the rest of the AU and D.C. community, are invited to attend the concert, which will begin at 7:30 p.m.
"By the way," he said with a sort of impish look, "tickets are very expensive for that concert - they're five dollars each. With four sonatas, it's a dollar twenty-five per sonata."
From a short preview of the concert material, admission will be well worth it. Watching Mandel play is to see the passion of a true master. He moves with ease through the movements of the sonatas he will play on Monday.
"The first movement is very lyrical," he said as he played the Moonlight Sonata on his office piano, "and then there's a gracious second movement." Quickly, Mandel switches from the mysterious sensuality of the Moonlight Sonata to the playful and upbeat second movement. "But then there's a very turbulent last movement," and Mandel's hands fly rapidly and fervently over the keys, his body jerking to the sound.
As Mandel plays, he breathes and sometimes hums lightly to the music, as if his breath is derived from it.
In the quiet Kreeger Building, Mandel's piano rips through the quiet, and it is so loud and quick, it practically shakes the walls. Hearing the music is "intoxicating," "torrential" and "powerful." Earlier, Mandel said, "I think we're put on this earth to accomplish as much as possible."
It appears he is on that track.
