THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
44
Friday, September 27, 1985
45
Friday, September 27, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
A fountain in downtown Detroit
provides a backdrop for the music
of the Gemini twins.
school after college he adds. - And
Las was thinking of teaching. That
Although thev are identical twins
(not only du they look alike, but their
speaking and singing voices are un-
(Nas the idea. But, somehow, when
school was over, we knew that was not
what we wanted to do."
So, upon graduation, in an effort
to work up an act together, the two
embarked on a series of self-taught
guitar lessons. Following these were
lessons — again self-taught — on the
penny-whistle, ocarina, and other
flute-like instruments for Laszlo, and
percussion instruments like fiddles-
ticks, clay drum, and bones (wooden,
rib-like strips) for Sandor.
Today, a Gemini concert features
the two of them on a dozen different
instruments, plus vocalizing by both
— although, again neither has ever
studied voice formally.
At their children's concerts, em-
phasis is on audience participation
and sing-along activity, and music is
usually traditional, as it is at Jewish
concerts.
Standard adult concerts, however,
feature material composed by the
twins, who have written music and
lyrics for well over 50 songs — most of
which they've either performed in con-
cert or recorded. One particular favo-
rite, The Waltz of the Old Lovers, com-
posed by Laszlo nine years ago (after
watching an elderly couple dancing
together one night at an Ypsilanti bar)
is still sung at most of their concerts.
Sandor's wife, Brenda, and Lasz-
lo's wife, Helen, have performed with
the duo a few times, and have also
played and sung a bit on two Gemini
albums.
"But they're not natural hams
like we are," says Laszlo. "And we
usually have to twist their arms."
The brothers estimate they spend,
on an average, about two months a
year on the road. Although most dates
are in Michigan, recent bookings in-
cluded Augusta, Ga.; Asheville, N.C.;
Peterborough, N.H.; Pembroke, Mass.;
and Toronto and Windsor.
"Basically, when we're not on the
road, we spend about ten hours a day,
recording, or rehearsing, or writing
music," says Sandor. "We rehearse
several times a week, usually at each
other's homes."
"And we have no more than two or
three disagreements a day," adds
Laszlo, smiling.
like to emphasize that that doesn't
mean they're the same in every way.
.'l think, in the last few years, as
we have grown to be more aware of
what we like and don't like, our dif-
ferences have become more apparent
to us," says Sandor. "And so, it's be-
coming more important to work out
ways to take those differences — those
different strengths and weaknesses --
and mold them into something we can
take out in front of an audience, to-
gether."
They do perform individually at
times, but only occasionally. "Last
year, Las and I probably played about
five concerts alone," says Sandor, "as
opposed to the 100 or so we did to-
gether."
For most of the remainder of the
summer, they'll be staying close to
home, rehearsing and recording a
series of children's records for High
Scope, an Ypsilanti educational foun-
dation.
Other plans include an album of
Jewish music, scheduled for release
around the first of the year. The al-
bum, which the twins have already
begun recording under their own
label, will feature such favorites as
Tutnbalalaika, Rozhinkes Mit Man-
dlen, and Era.) Shel Shoshanim, along
with other Yiddish and modern Israeli
songs, and some original material,
composed by Gemini.
Upcoming area Gemini concerts
are scheduled for the Saline Street
Festival, Oct. 6; the University of
Michigan-Dearborn, Nov. 12; and the
Jewish Community Center in Oak
Park, Nov. 24 (a children's concert).
What do they hope to accomplish
when they perform?
"Hopefully, by the time a concert
is over, there's a sense of community,"
says Sandor. "If a concert has gone
well technically, and every note was
played absolutely correctly, but that
sense of community didn't happen, I
don't feel satisfied."
"Having a sense that what we're
doing and what the audience is doing
just becomes one thing — that's what
we shoot for in all our concerts," adds
Laszlo. ❑
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grand sum of 550 in their pockets.
Sandor, with a degree in history,
and Laszlo, with a degree in English
from the University of Rochester, were
determined to make their way as
musicians. They had no agents, no
contacts, and almost no formal musi-
cal training. They knew no one in Ann
Arbor. and had chosen to come there
simply because "nothing was happen-
ing in Rochester," and because LaSZ-
In's wife was considering enrolling in
the University of Michigan's graduate
school.
Along with the $50, they brought
with them a profound love of music —
'specially folk music and a great
deal of determination to succeed.
Soon, they were working as
janitors at an Ann Arbor printing firm
("to pay the rent") and, not long after
that, the Hungarian-born twins had
landed their first job as performers —
at the Ann Arbor Summer Art. Fair.
No matter that they weren't paid
for their efforts at the fair. A few weeks
later, they were paid to entertain one
evening at The Ark in Ann Arbor. ( - I
don't remember exactly what we got,
but it couldn't have been much," says
Sandor. "We had to split the gate with
two other performers. It was probably
around $25, I'd imagine.")
Though the pay was miniscule,
the brothers were anything but dis-
couraged. "Gemini," they felt, was on
its way.
As it turned out, they were right.
Today, 12 years later,, the folk-
singing duo averages about 100 con-
certs a year in the United States and
Canada, recently formed their own re-
cording company — called, appropri-
ately, "Brothers" — and, through it,
recorded three albums. And, per con-
cert, they make at least 10 times more
than that first $25.
Born in Budapest (Sandor admits
to being the elder — "by 12 minutes"),
the twins grew up in a home sur-
rounded by music, and often sang with
their father, a cantor, when they were
children.
Both credit their parents with
having instilled in them, early on, a
profound love of music ,1101
- When I was 10 years old, and
really had no idea what the words of
sums' of the chants (my father sang)
meant, or why they should move me, I
would stand up with him and he'd sing
this prayer, and I'd start crying," says
Laszlo. "I wouldn't know why I was
crying. But he could do that to me, and
to other people, on a regular basis.
"Our mother, who's not particu-
larly musical at all, gave us what I
think we need to have in order to do
what we're doing — enthusiasm. We
could be watching TV and she'd say,
That guy has got something.' And I'd
know what she was talking about —
whether you want to call it charisma
or drive or whatever. She just had a
real sense of what it takes to come
across to people."
The family left Hungary in 1957
when the twins were eight years old,
and settled in Israel for two years, be-
fore moving on to New York City in
1959.
'The Russians closed all
synagogues and churches," says San-
dor, recalling the 1956 Revolution
which forced the family's move out of
Hungary. "One day, when my father
went to the synagogue, he encountered
a guard at the door who told him he
couldn't enter the synagogue. When
that happened, it was like the final
realization that it wasn't going to be
possible to live in Hungary the way
(my parents) wanted to live."
The two brothers (there were no
other children in the family) claim
they adjusted to life in the United
States relatively easily, although they
say they did encounter substantial dif-
ficulty with English at first, a lan-
guage they found to be vastly different
to their native Hungarian.
After high school in Kingston,
N.Y., their decisions to study some-
thing other than music came about
mainly as a result of their father's
wishes, they say.
"In a way, it never really occurred
to us (earlier in our lives) to make a
career out of music," says Sandor.
"That was discouraged by our father.
He wanted something 'better' for us.
Basically, he wanted something very
stable.
"The idea (while we were in
Love of music and perseverance
led the Slomovits twins to
careers as entertainers,
composers and recording artists.
BY VICTORIA DIAZ
Special to The Jewish N
cannily S111111;11'), the brothers seem In