Mahani Teave

Pianist Mahani Teave has roots on Easter Island. After a growing international career, she returned to the island to open a music school there, the island's first. Teave's father was a member of the Rapa Nui ethnic group, a Polynesian people that make up the bulk of the population of Easter Island, itself called Rapa Nui in the local language. Her mother was American, and she was born in Hawaii on February 14, 1983, and grew up on Easter Island. There was only one piano there and one piano teacher, but Teave became fascinated by classical music and practiced for hours. Classical music and the traditional music of the island were, she told Gideon Long of the BBC (August 7, 2012), "two completely different worlds. But the more I travelled I came to realise that we're all one people, with the same feelings and the same problems. And it's the same with music. It's about different ways of expressing the same feelings." The piano teacher retired, but Teave still had a passion for the piano, and her mother decided to move the family to the Chilean mainland, five hours away by plane (Easter Island is part of Chile), so that she could pursue her dreams. She attended the Austral University of Chile and went on for further piano studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she won the school's concerto competition (she is also a Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition winner), and at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Teave embarked on a touring career, frequently performing around Chile and also in North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2012, she was designated a Steinway Artist. She never forgot her roots, however, and that same year she established the Easter Island Music School, with an eye toward giving local youngsters opportunities she herself had found difficult to obtain. Teave returned to Easter Island to operate the school and raise a family. The school provides lessons in piano, cello, violin, and ukulele. Teave continued to perform internationally, but mostly in efforts to raise funds for the school. This situation continued until software executive Dave Fulton and his wife traveled to Easter Island in the late 2010s and happened to encounter the school. Separately, documentary filmmaker John Forsen released the documentary Song of Rapa Nui, released in 2020. Teave's recording debut Rapa Nui Odyssey was organized by Fulton and released in 2021, featuring music by Bach, Chopin, Handel, Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Scriabin.
© James Manheim /TiVo