Carol Sheehan Fields and Peggy Byrne Dixon have been friends and fellow pianists since growing up together in Mobridge back in the 60’s. Since then piano has continued to be a big part of their lives. The ladies have played piano duos together many times over the years, but this occasion is different. Fields and Dixon are both seventy years old now, and this weekend this dazzling duo is using their musical talents to help the Mobridge Library.
Peggy Byrne Dixon and Carol Sheehan Fields grew up in Mobridge and developed an interest in piano at an early age. They took lessons from the same piano teacher. They were both accompanists for the chorus and soloists. Fields says they were fortunate to have music in their lives.
“In South Dakota in the 60’s when we were going to high school there was no physical ed for girls, so basically we didn’t have a lot to do. And I think with Peggy and myself, we played piano, we took piano lessons and got better at piano. So that was fortunate for us. I think some girls didn’t have it quite so good,” says Fields.
Both Dixon and Fields continued to study music after graduating high school. They got married, started families, and moved away from Mobridge - but Fields says they managed to keep in touch. Dixon currently lives in Mobridge – Fields lives in Colorado. Fields says their friendship and mutual love of music have stood the test of time.
“We’ve had reunions that I’ve seen Peggy – you know the ten year, the twenty year, the thirty year, and last year I was there visiting, and Peggy has a music studio because she is a piano teacher there in Mobridge, and she has a grand piano and a digital piano, and we started to play duets and just had a blast – just had a ball. It was so much fun,” says Fields.
Fields says that after that visit to Mobridge she returned home to Colorado - but there was talk amongst community members back in South Dakota about somehow making a public event out of these ladies playing piano duos. She remembers someone mentioning that the Mobridge Library was in need of funds to complete the renovation of their space, and how the collaboration between the pianists and the library could be successful.
She says friend and fellow pianist Peggy Dixon took the proposal seriously, and made it happen.
Karla Bieber is the Director of the A.H. Brown Public Library in Mobridge. She says the library is rearranging and expanding its current space, and there is still a financial need for securing certain furnishings.
Bieber says fundraising efforts in the past have been successful but she’ll take all the help she can get.
“I’d just like to thank our community for all the support we’ve gotten with our addition project and everything else we’ve been doing. We have had wonderful community support and these two ladies are just adding to that,” says Bieber.
Pianist Peggy Dixon says she and Fields are happy to lend their talents to help the Mobridge Library. Dixon says she has held the library dear since childhood.
The concept of the piano duo doing a benefit concert for the library gained momentum and took on the fitting name of “Together Again.” Dixon says the music for the concert varies and keeps the line-up fresh.
“The program itself is going to be really interesting. It’s a combination of very classical music with more modern music inserted, interspersed among the numbers,” says Dixon.
Dixon and Fields say they corresponded across states to carefully choose the music selections themselves. Listeners can expect to hear four hands on two pianos playing a varied selection that includes a Mozart sonata, a bit of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Copland’s Hoedown from Rodeo, and the finale is a patriotic medley.
Fields says the pair plays well together because of their differences.
“Peggy and I come at playing the piano from two totally different places. I read music. I’m this person who has to have music to play, and I can play most any music but I have to have the music to at least learn it. Peggy on the other hand is one of these people who – she has perfect pitch – and she will hear something played and can sit down and play it for the most part,” says Fields.
Both ladies have different styles of learning and playing the piano, and Dixon says there are still challenges they face today.
“You know the hardest part of performing something like this is coordination. With the stops and the starts, the retards, the dynamics, and you have to be in tune with the other pianist and watch them for when they start, when they stop, and so on. That’s the hardest part,” says Dixon.
Dixon and Fields make playing the piano sound easy as their fingers fly across the keyboards. Their music sounds like a lively conversation between old friends. These friends are now reaching out to the community with their music as a way to help.
For more information contact the Mobridge Library.