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Nefther Peter, Rostal nor Paul Schaefer imagined himself as half of a performâ€" ing duo when the two met and became school chums ailmost three decades ago. And, assuredly, neither dreamt that 30 _ years later he‘d be touring the globe with the other â€" performing popular Roster and Schaefer, who perform Saturday evening at Centre in the Square. met while both were juniors at the Royal College of Music in London. And both moved to New York to further their classical piano studies at the Juk lard School And so it was not surprising â€" perhaps it was even inevitable â€" that a friendâ€" ship should forn between the two. The musical parmership, however, took a litâ€" ie more coaxing. By Deborah Crandall *We were school friends, if you like. ~ wl And when we were at Julllard, we were * % prianis the only two English students in the f $ pecmnad school, so we were kind of automatâ€" 1. â€" cally thrown together," Rostal recaills. m onl *We‘d been playing duets together vg anyway, when we were kids at home, % but once we got to Julllard, it just sort of “ # * took off a litfle bit more. Our teachers 5 o f were telling us we ought to play two * | | . planos. But we never did because we | had grand delusions of being great . f 4 soloists, | suppose, and didn‘t like the idea of sharing a career with each. KHappily, now, I think we‘ve got over that, Rostal and Schaefer were receptive to the idea, and rather enjoy it. It means we‘ve got some comâ€" â€" but there was just one hitch â€" both had spent pany when we travel around." years studying classical music. Nowhere in their After the two planists returmed to England, their repertoires were show tunes and other types of first career opportunity came., oddly enough. via . popular music well suited to variety shows. variety television and stage shows. *We didn‘t have any material to play. We had "It was a peculiar situation, really, because while just been practising our standard classical reperâ€" we were at Julliard, we were very eamest music . toire," Rostal says. "Fortunately, we had both studâ€" students, clutching our Beethoven sonatas," Rostal led composition. So we knuckled down and used says. * And when we got back to England, the first whatever compositional skills we had to start opportunity we got was in a varlety show at the . arranging things that were suitable for a Max London Palladium. it just so happened that one of Bygraves show, which meant selections from musiâ€" the benefactors of the Royal College of Music was . cals, popular songs and medleys of various things. friendly with a wellâ€"known English entertainer of the . And we found that we had a talent for arranging time named Max Bygraves. He was doing a lot of that we didn‘t know was there." variety shows and he was looking for a kind of _ Rostal and Schaefer found themseives performâ€" musical act, if you like, to be the first haif of his . ing at the Palladium with the likes of Ancdy Willlams, shows. When he tgmd out about us, he thought it Engelbert Humperdinck, Dionne Warwick and was a good idea. other visiting artists. They also travelled with The All of the classics, with none of the pretense Rostal & Schaefer â€" Try our 2 :1 Conmmos owmessom | _ 4e CCA _ ), Min Golt AND FAMILY PLAYGROUND _ ag peace LKC Courses 1380 Victoria St. N., Kitchener Call 744â€"1555 for info Daily Starting Friday, June 10 at 10 a.m. ALL ACTIVITIES OPEV Gruagpecgen onl dsb Si O Tchaikovsky baillets and pepular Chopin waltzes. And that was a great curtain i opener to my own appreciaftion. Later on, as years progressed, | started taking an Interest in what you might call heavier music like Bach or Wagner, or anything that the ordinary man on theâ€"street might find forbidding. If our kind of concerts can have appedl to the ordinary man on the street, perhaps they might want to delve deeper. But really, we‘re trying to provide a classical entertainment in an unpretentious way." When Rostal and Schaetfer last visited at the Centre in the Square almost 10 years ago. they, along with the Kitchenerâ€"Waterico Symphony. perâ€" formed their Internationallyâ€"acciaimed Beaties Concerto. Rostal and Schaefer‘s June 11 Kitchener concert will feature selections from their varled repertoire, such as Gershwh'sfrmodyh Blug, Uszt‘s Liebeâ€" straum, Beethoven‘s Moonlight Sonata, Falia‘s Ritâ€" ual Fire Dance., and Strauss* Blue Danube Wailtz. Tickets for the concert are $29, $26 and $23, and are available at the Centre in the Square box office. To charge tickets by phone, call 578â€"1570. London Palladilum Show to places like Australia, South Africa, Canada, and other countries with heavy Brifish populaâ€" tions. *But we never saw that as being what we were intended to do." Rostal says. "We were just kind of thrown . into the deep end, and it was a bit of a laugh more than anything. But what it did do was teach us to arrange. So when we started returning to doing concerts, we had leamed how to wiite forâ€"two plancs. Instead of just aranging show tunes for Max Bygraves shows, we could start aranging selections from Mozart operas or Strauss wailtzes, or things more sultable fovnom knack for aranging twoâ€"plano flon scriptions of full orchestral music lead to *Grand Plano Classics* coéngerts, which Rostal and Schaetfer have ormed around the world to emh\gl'c audiâ€" "The kind of music we play is universol, and I think it‘s presented in an unpretenâ€" tious way â€" in a way that ordinary people can just enjoy classical music without havâ€" Ing to be educated at university for years," Rostal says. "I think of my own introâ€" duction to classical music when I was young, and how I| first got to like