Orchestra Director, arranger and graduate in musical composition, son of the remembered Angel Mahlertalented and determined, eternally young, a man with a child’s soul, Damián Mahler copes with strength the still very recent paternal loss. Pain, pride, professionalism and responsibility coexist on their shoulders, in the task of continuing with his father’s legacy.
If we were in a novel by Agatha Christie, Hercules Poirot would recognize it between a crowd. Damián Mahler He has pianist’s hands, gestures, speaks and moves as a pianist. The Fidelio password will slide on the table so that the portrait reached perfection.
The encounter with Damián Mahler acquires features of Film Noir. The meeting with news occurs in a restaurant that is reached by going down an elevator that reminds films such as “Scarface” and “Good Boys.” In addition, the talk derives towards “El Paperino”, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpie “The Godfather Live”show that will be presented on September 25 at the Great Rex where Damián Mahler will lead to the BA Pop orchestra.
News: Did you always want to be a musician?
Damián Mahler: Obviously, having been born in a house where music and theater were current currency, it was very difficult not to accept that invitation to a world that was there, available to be lived with naturalness and joy since I was a boy. Afterwards, there came a time when I made the conscious decision to dedicate myself to music, singing skills I never had (laughs). Dad’s figure was strong and continues to be in another way, it served as an example, but there was never an imposition, on the contrary, my old men were very intelligent in that sense and they always let us choose freely, but both my brother and I wanted to be musicians. There was never a plan B, having Dad at home was the proof that you could live on music.
News: Does it give some peace of mind to know that one has talent? Because if a bad streak comes one can search them …
Mahler: I do not think there is a peace of mind in music, but today I realize the privilege that means to live on this, because it is something that I would pay with pleasure to do. I try to always keep in mind, I also understand that what we do is a service, although it is not always perceived. I think that what is done above a stage is good for other people, it gives joy, gives it the possibility of coming to the theater and seeing a show that for those who chose you can be unforgettable. I always have this potential in mind, so in a season where we do six weekly functions or a single night show. To the spectator at that time you are changing a little bit of his reality, he is going for a while and perhaps he is keeping a memory that will accompany him.
News: You are married and have an 11 -year -old daughter, is your partner also dedicated to theater?
Mahler: Yes, my wife is an actress and singer, but for some time she is also very dedicated to astrology, which I accompanied, I started to learn more about my native letter, I give her ball. I like astrology, it is an issue that interests me, all the time I am saying “What happens today with energy?”, Sometimes the thing is not so linear, it is not that you are in a bad mood because of the planets (laughs) but I think it is an interesting self -knowledge tool. Not to replace therapies, of course, but it seems to me a very necessary complement.
News: How was the older brother to grow?
Mahler: I am the one who has the greatest responsibility, self -sighted or for certain personality traits. My brother is just two and a half years younger, but in the events it happened, I also tell you that we have a divine relationship. He is one of the people I love most in the world, in all these years a thousand things have happened and we have never had a discussion or a difference …
News: He did not throw him in face that you were the favorite, that is assumed
Mahler: (laughs) It was an issue that my dad lived, I don’t know if exactly, but he always tried to compensate for this that I made a path close to his and shared everything. My brother nothing to do, does another type of music, is not involved in the field of theater like me, so my old man needed to balance that feeling that I was receiving something and my brother was not a mambo, there was never that problem for us. With my dad we shared the path of training a lot, I showed him everything I was learning in the Faculty, we lived together and then we started working, despite the fact that my parents separated when I was a teenager, the closeness with him was constant.
News: Little time passed since his father’s death, how is he living this moment?
Mahler: As you can. In the first half it was overwhelming, in good sense, the amount of messages, called and posts on Instagram that they dedicated to him, you got into the networks and the amount of beautiful words towards my dad was incredible. I always knew how he was because he was very close to him, he thought he knew the impact he had on others, but with a dad like this you never finished dimensioning him. Not to mention the thousands of people who worked with him and who for some reason maintain a nice memory. Do you know all those who told me: “Your old man helped me in a moment or gave me my first work”? I received hundreds of messages like this and also from people I don’t know to tell me that their music made their lives happier. When that first moment passes and you go down, they begin to weigh other things. For example, every time something happened I spoke with my old man, all day I sent it nonsense on the cell phone, eliminating from your head that logic of sending him a mesage is difficult, there you feel the lack of his presence in everyday life. Then there is something deeper, you look up in your family tree and your old man is gone, I have my mother, but the mother is another type of figure, there is no longer that feeling of protection emanating from him. Now that feeling I have to transmit it to my daughter, I need to strengthen myself and be solid because the person who is aware of me and looks at me with those eyes looking for references is her, it was time to look down because above it is no longer dad.
News: His father turned years on May 23 and died on 25, reminded David Bowie who turned on January 8 and died on 10. I don’t know if someone made him notice that parallelism
Mahler: The truth is that no, and it is still stronger, my dad had a brief, but very intense hospitalization, and on his birthday he suffered two heart strikes. The doctors brought him back, in the second maneuver for 40 minutes to do it, after that Dad was already asleep and intubated, he did not leave more than that situation. If I get a little more philosophical and spiritual, his departure from this plane occurred at that time, on his birthday.
News: What does “The Godfather” mean for you and how was the show that will do the 25 in the Great Rex?
Mahler: Both the “Spiderman” show that was recently, and the “El Padrino” were projects that my old man was going to do and asked me to take care of them. Only now I am finding out of many other things that I had pending because we did not talk so much work but about life. The “The Godfather” was a dream that my dad had for several years, meanwhile we are of Italian ancestry and Italian music always fell deep. My grandfather was a fan of the operas of Puccini, the Napolitan Canzonetta and also of tango, heir to that music thanks to immigration. In us the work of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota and “The Godfather” was deeply installed was something that especially moved my old man.
News: During the show they play the soundtrack and also the movie is seen?
Mahler: Exactly, the format is that of a film function. The public sees the projection of the full film with the small difference that the music is played live as passed in the mute cinema, but not only with a piano as it was then, we have an orchestra of 61 musicians and I am the director.
News: A while ago the figure of an orchestra director was in the fight for the Oscar when Cate Blanchett made “tá”, did you see her?
Mahler: I will confess something, all the movies that talk about the musicians of the musicians I am sincere … I avoid them! (Laughs) I saw several of those when I was a boy, I think the last one was “Claroscuro”, which is the stormy story of a pianist with mental problems and said “No, stop!” (series). Everything is fine, but it is a lot.
