The concert on Friday, January 27, is at 8 p.m. in the Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus. He will perform Bach's Solo Suites No. 1, 2 and 3, which are as much alike as they are different.
The professor of cello at Grand Valley credits his mother, the noted piano pedagogue Mercedes Veglia, as his earliest musical influence. Mahave-Veglia says he's known he wanted to be a cellist since he was 6 years old. Part of that decision came from not wanting to take piano lessons from his mother, as his brother was, but instead find his own instrument. His interest in string instruments came in part from the physical aspect of playing them and also the intrigue of what he refers to as their wide range of "human voice sound."
Mahave-Veglia's first trip to the U.S. was when he came to attend Interlochen Arts Academy for his last year of high school and studied cello with Crispin Campbell. He graduated in 1987 and returned to Interlochen for the first time last year to conduct a Master Class. Mahave-Veglia holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University and the Eastman School of Music. After completing his master's degree Mahave-Veglia had what he calls an "inverse crisis."
"I took a position teaching at the University of Evansville solely to support myself as I took auditions, hoping to join an orchestra," said Mahave-Veglia. "What I wasn't prepared for was how much I enjoyed teaching. I decided to pursue my doctorate degree and have enjoyed both teaching and performing ever since."
Mahave-Veglia is among a very small percentage of cello performers who play baroque. His concert is a rare opportunity to hear an authentic performance of Bach's Cello Suites. His cello is a faithful reproduction of an Amati in original setting, with no endpin, gut strings and a shorter fingerboard. The music source for his performance is from the hand-written copy by Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer's second wife and musical partner, since no manuscript exits from the composer's hand.
