Hill area musician: a lifetime in the spotlight

by STEVEN STANEK

On a simple tree-lined street where all houses look the same, there is one address that hides a unique history, a musical past that reaches far beyond the CD catalogues and piano lessons we all had. The home belongs to 65-year-old Jeffrey Marlowe, a renowned pianist, and his wife Judith, a violinist of some acclaim, but you wouldn’t know by walking through the door the years spent in the spotlight, in the glare of national television cameras and concert hall audiences.

Nothing there tells of a famous life, a national concert circuit, the accompaniment of fine orchestras and an appearance on Johnny Carson. Marlowe may not look the music master today, as he spends his days on a hushed block in Lafayette Hill teaching his students the basics. But there was a time when his fingers danced along the keys for jam-packed crowds, when people tossed words like “prodigy” and “genius,” when he gave interviews in studios, and it started when he was much younger.

Jeffrey Marlowe became a musician at the age of four, when he first remembers “fooling around” as a kid in Philadelphia. There is not one distinct memory, just an idea that at that age, the presence of this great instrument started to overtake him. His identical twin, Ronald, also began playing very young, and it wasn’t hard to tell from their matching abilities that there was something there that traced the lines of a broader horizon.

So their parents did what many parents do; they got their sons piano lessons. In many cases, their teachers could only mentor them to a point and suggested they move on to more talented instructors. The first great musical figure in their lives was Eleanor Sokoloff, a teacher at the Curtis Center 60 years ago who still teaches there today, known to have an eye for exceptional talent. Jeffry credits her with installing a strong technical groundwork.

The second great tutorship came under Luboshutz and Nemenoff, a married duo of global celebrity, being the only duet to perform with Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic. Jeffry describes their influence, molding the brothers into a syncopated twosome, in the perfect knowledge of the other, as only identical twins can have.

The Marlowe Brothers became a sensation almost as big as the Olsen twins. The duplicate pair toured the country, playing duets at the most popular venues. By age 11, they debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their adolescent resume included stops on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Gary Moore Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Milton Berle Show and locally on The Gene London Show. As a set, Ronald and Jeffry climbed to the forefront of duet performance, all the while maintaining a rigorous tour program of constant traveling.

Musical selections ranged from the classical to pop, from the eloquent duets of Brahms, Mozart and Poulenc, to their own renditions of Beatles’ melodies, which always proved to be a crowd pleaser. At this early height of their touring careers, which was much greater than their actual height, “Jeffry and Ronald Marlowe, Duo-Pianists” were among the most well-known family acts in the country, two identical pictures of childhood stardom.

Life in the national spotlight didn’t come easy. The brothers intermingled rehearsals with travel, touring the U.S. and Canada in a small trailer, hauling two pianos from venue to venue. Jeffry remembers the TV studio as an inhospitable place, “a cold and unforgiving atmosphere.” With cameras, producers, and technicians on all sides, he said, it was a ruthless experience, where pressure abounds and mistakes amplify. The most useful thing that came from performing for the camera was the idea that he couldn’t stop for a mistake.

At that time, television was absolutely live, with no second takes, editing or brush-ups. Jeffry and Ronald, together, learned to persevere through blemishes, screw-ups and missed keys, which is crucial in professional music — to be seamless. Of course it is much easier to keep tempo and harmony with someone else, despite mistakes, if that person is your identical twin. Jeffry calls it “good faking.”

The closest the brothers came to disaster was during one of their most decisive moments, in the limelight of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The twins sat across from each other, each with his own producer standing by to give directions. The time allotted for them to play would determine which piece they played, and this answer would be given by the producers only a few seconds before they hit the “big screen.”

Only this time, the producers told each brother to play a different arrangement, which didn’t bode well for an act that requires perfect syncopation. Nevertheless, on the brink of dissonance, Jeffry and Ronald began with the same tune. There was something more to their duets than practice, a certain innate understanding that superceded skill and execution.

Life wasn’t all music and tours for Jeffry. He attended Temple University and met his future wife when the choral director sat them together. Judith, a professional violinist, had her share of musical achievements, though she only started playing at the age of six. Judith was a member of a string quartet for 30 years, and currently teaches music at Oak Lane Day School. Though husband and wife are musicians of the highest order, they have never played together on stage. At home, however, they pair up their instruments and talents for a private concert, a little duet of their own.

After college, the Marlowe brothers continued to tour, revising and perfecting their gig as identical twin music geniuses. They went on to be the featured pianists of the New York Philharmonic (like their teachers), the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. They played together professionally well into their 50s, until the routine became too routine and traveling became grueling.

While many childhood stars fail to carry the glamour into adult life, the Marlowe brothers closed shop only after a lifetime of work on stage, after they became one of the most recognized duet pianists in the country, playing to rave reviews in major papers like the Washington Post. What started as “fooling around” with an instrument became one of the leading piano duos in history.

Which brings me to the Jeffry Marlowe that I met last Saturday, sitting across the coffee table, answering my questions deliberately. After all the touring is done, the spotlights diffused, and the reviews no longer written, the real pride of Jeffry’s life is teaching. For a man whose life is staked on black and white keys, it is only fitting to picture his delight and the affectionate grin when he describes his grandson playing at his namesake recital.

His two daughters, both Springside graduates who went on to the University of Pennsylvania, dabbled in piano, taking lessons from their father, though neither plays professionally. One of his current students, from Gwynned Mercy, was the first to earn a scholarship to Mount Saint Joseph’s for music, an achievement that Marlowe describes with the same satisfaction as when he recounts his glory days. Jeffry Marlowe plans to keep teaching in the future, giving private lessons, trying to ignite that same spark of genius that his Luboshutz and Nemenoff kindled in him — perhaps searching for a protégé of his own. For now, even with only one lesson under his belt, the image of his four-year-old grandson banging clumsily at the keys testifies that the Marlowe family music tradition lives on.