PARIS – They said it was not their idea.

However, they sure liked it.

Sasha Joseph, valedictorian, and Tim Maurice, salutatorian of the class of 2003 at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, intended to present a speech at graduation Saturday.

Maurice said he had a question as he planned his exit presentation and went to speak to teacher Brewster Burns.

Another teacher, Peter Toohey, was there and suggested that Maurice and Joseph do a piano duet at graduation – instead of speeches.

“The idea appealed to me immediately,” Joseph said. “No matter where I went with my valedictory speech, I would just be repeating something that had been said before.”

Maurice said he could get a message across better with music.

“Public speaking is not our thing,” he said. “We’re better with music than words.”

They immediately went to work on a graduation presentation.

It might have been easier to tell the administration there was not going to be valedictorian or salutatorian speeches, but Joseph and Maurice decided a surprise would be the best route.

“We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the people we lied to about being done with our speeches,” they said in unison.

Joseph and Maurice said they have known each other since middle school. Maurice, who is a year older than Joseph, said they did not really get along well in middle school. They were both used to being the best piano players in their respective classes. He said they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses and by ninth grade, they grew to respect each other.

They had played together before – a duet at Camp Sunshine.

“We put it together the day of the performance,” Joseph said.

“We met two times,” Maurice said. “The day before and the day of.”

“It was just like jazz,” Joseph said. “We took a basic structure and improvised. We did a four-hand piano duet, which are a lot of fun.”

“I was on the higher register for the first part and Sasha on the base,” Maurice said.

“I elbowed Tim off the bench and moved my way up,” Sasha said. “We switched.”

“The people liked it a lot. It was impressive,” Joseph said. “You can do more on one piano with four hands than two. What would be even better is having four hands.”

“Or, two people each with four hands,” Maurice added.

The boys laughed at the notion.

Joseph said they wanted to something entertaining, something fun for them, and something uplifting.

They decided to play one piano.

“I wasn’t very fond of the two piano idea,” Joseph said. “There was a lot of controversy about my being valedictorian. In the minds of some, I’m not technically a senior because I chose to graduate early. It’s more about just being part of the class.

“I was a lot more keen on the four-hands, and thought using one piano might diffuse that negative sentiment,” Joseph said. “Like we’re doing something together.”

“We’re not dueling,” Maurice said.

“We were originally going to do a Mozart duet, piano concerto in E-flat Major,” Joseph said.

“But, I didn’t think I would be able to sufficiently learn that in two weeks,” Maurice said. “It is 18 pages. I looked at it and grimaced.”

Joseph said although he and Maurice are classically trained, they decided that the graduation piece would not consist of just one motif.

He said if he had to put a title on the piece it would be “Umm . . . WHOA!”

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