NPR

On A Remote Island, A Music School Flourishes

The Toki School of Music is the brainchild of pianist Mahani Teave, who gave up a promising international career to return to Easter Island to teach children.
Kids in Toki class.

As pianist Mahani Teave was poised to launch her international career, she remembered the moment when the first piano arrived on her remote island. It was 1992, she was nine years old and the instrument landed on Rapa Nui, or Easter Island as it was named by Europeans. Best known for its mysterious, sentinel-like stone statues, the island lies some 2000 miles off the coast of Chile.

"I had to go, break all the rules, and, a new documentary about the pianist and her mercurial career. Teave took her first lessons on that piano. They cemented her love for the instrument and inspired the young musician to eventually leave her island home for years of study and dreams of becoming a star soloist. Her was released earlier this year.

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