Mark Maxwell met Anne Waller at Southern Methodist University while studying classical guitar. At the time, the dean of SMU decided to cancel a handful of programs. A group of students, including Maxwell and Waller, put together a concert to save the guitar program. That was the first time Maxwell and Waller played as a duo. 

The two, now married, have been playing together since 1981. 

Maxwell, Coordinator of Guitar Studies and adjunct faculty member, presented a recital titled “The First Golden Age of Guitar” on Saturday, Jan. 11 at DePaul’s ​​Holtschneider Performance Center alongside Waller. Six major pieces were featured in the program, all created by different 19th century composers from Paris and Vienna. 

“Calling it ‘The First Golden Age of Guitar’ is not something we invented,” Waller said. “A lot of people writing about the guitar say that about this time period. It was a huge moment where so much music was being written and it’s a vast amount of repertoire originally written for the guitar. So it’s a ‘first’ moment.” 

Throughout their time playing together, Maxwell and Waller discovered that 19th century guitars greatly complement the music produced during the same time period.

“Antique guitars from the early 19th century have a very light sound compared to a modern, robust, classical guitar,” Maxwell said. “They are lighter and the music has an ornamental melody with a lot of fast arpeggios and fast melodic lines in the textures of the pieces.”

A former student of Waller’s built the duo a Terz guitar to utilize throughout this performance. The Terz guitar was a 19th century instrument popular in Vienna that was tuned a third higher than a standard guitar. 

“It makes a lot of sense for duo writing, that you would have differently pitched guitars rather than two instruments in the same pitch range,” Waller said. “It is a different sound and it’s quite an expanded kind of resonance.”

Jimi Wexler, classical guitar performance major, is currently studying under Maxwell. Among the composers featured, Wexler is most anticipating the pieces written by J.K. Mertz. 

“It’s a very romantic kind of style and, for its time, it was very innovative,” Wexler said. “Something we’ve been missing is having classical guitar performances in the area.”

The duo originally decided to play together because they had a similar ear and a similar musical point of view, Waller said. Since then, it’s always been a collaboration.

“When you play as a duo, you’ve made a commitment to the duo’s musical goals,” Maxwell said. “You have to do everything else that a soloist does, but you’ve got to do it in synchronization. That makes it a lot harder. You have to really commit to that.” 

The two moved to Chicago in 1985 after Waller received an offer to teach classical guitar at Northwestern. The following year, Maxwell got a job at DePaul. 

“There’s a sort of business challenge,” Waller said. “How do you make a living when both people play the guitar? We always used to joke, ‘It takes a population base of about seven million to support two classical guitarists.” 

Throughout their time together, Maxwell and Waller have recorded music, taught and traveled side by side. 

“We’re one of those married duos, you know?” Waller said. “We pretty much do everything together. It’s an unimaginable amount of rehearsal compared to, say, professional chamber groups who are unrelated and only plan certain rehearsal times.”

As an extension of the philosophies the duo has established together, both Maxwell and Waller have guitar ensembles at their respective universities.

“We’re teaching guitarists who tend to be competitive with each other to be collaborative,” Maxwell said. “It is a really essential skill to be a chamber musician. Guitarists can’t always make their living as a soloist. They have to learn to play with other instrumental voices.”  

Maxwell hopes that the recital provided students with the opportunity to hear new repertoire and  see that the guitar can be used as a serious chamber instrument.

“That’s been one of our big goals throughout our career is to have the guitar be taken seriously as an instrument,” Maxwell said. “We can play in the same way piano duos play together and play with a high level of artistry.”

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