The close bond that exists between identical twins may partly explain the success of the Katona Twins Guitar Duo, but sibling rivalry was the spark that started it all.
'We were 10 years old and we had only one guitar and we were fighting over it,' recalled Peter Katona, speaking long distance from Britain. 'So our mother bought us another guitar.'
In their first decade of playing and studying guitar, the Hungary-born Katona brothers would play solo and occasionally team up for a duet. It was not until they were 20, and only after attending a concert featuring a guitar duo, that they realised the immense possibilities of playing together as a professional duo.
Since launching their joint career as concert artists, the brothers have gained wide critical acclaim, with performances in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London. They have also performed in Beijing's Forbidden City. They have recorded five CDs to date, and in 2004 they became the first guitarists to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
'There are a lot more possibilities when you are a duo,' Peter Katona said.
The twins' technique is so refined and in synch that critics say they create the illusion of one guitar. 'Their needle-sharp unanimity of thought and attack is such that listening 'blind' one might wonder how one player could possibly have so many digits,' one reviewer wrote.
