Pianists Jonathan Korth and Tommy Yee are known for tickling the ivories, but they’re equally at home pounding Oahu’s pavement and trekking its trails.

Both men are professors in the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Music Department. Korth, 35, came to Hawaii in 2008 on a one-year position and has since become the head of piano studies. Yee, 41, is the associate head of the department. Together they teach about 35 UH students and are in heavy demand as private instructors and international performers.

Korth is an imposing figure at 6-foot-4, making some think that he moves pianos for a living rather than performing on them. His wife, soprano Rachel Schutz, made a similar mistake when they first met at Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y.

"The first time Rachel saw me, she thought I was a football player and she was wondering what I was doing in the music depart- ment," Korth said with a laugh.

In fact, Korth was a four-sport athlete in high school in Iowa: football, baseball, basketball and track. Playing piano paired nicely with athletics because both require fortitude and practice, and "I could get the physical aggression out and then still have the focus to play the piano," he said.

For Korth, learning a new piece was not unlike the preparation for one of his best track events: hurdling, a technically intricate sport.

"You’re trying to figure out a piece, practice it over and over, and then you figure it out," he said. "Especially with hurdling, that was helpful. I felt at the time they were very complementary."

But as a sophomore football player, Korth broke a thumb, sprained a wrist and separated a shoulder, resulting in a monthslong hiatus from piano and the realization he could no longer play the sport if he wanted to pursue music. He continued running track for a time in college, but piano took precedence.

Hiking is his main athletic passion now, though he’s still an avid football fan, sometimes watching games on TV while practicing piano.

Last summer, he and Schutz moved to Kailua, about a mile from the Olomana trailhead. About twice a week, he jogs to the trailhead and then hikes the rugged terrain for an approximately two-hour workout. Olomana rises to about 1,600 feet and has three peaks — with the third being the most challenging — but he usually sticks to the first one.

"I’ve done all three before, but I don’t need to do that again," he said. "It goes up a lot and it’s a good workout."

He’s also hiked Haleakala on Maui, entering the crater through the rugged Kaupo Gap, staying overnight in one of the cabins and hiking out via the steep Sliding Sands trail.

"I work hard when I hike, about as strenuously as we can do around the islands," Korth said. "I enjoy the physical aspect but also just the break from work, from the city, to get out into the woods."

All of that gets put on hold when he’s preparing for a concert, when he’ll practice three to six hours a day to perform. "You do your teaching and your practicing, and that’s it," he said.

YEE WAS not into sports at all either as a youngster or as a young adult. "I was chubby," said Yee, a native of Canada.

He studied in cold-climate areas like Newfoundland, Colorado and Baltimore, running occasionally on a treadmill. He said he was "thick," with little upper-body strength.

Yee got into running outdoors only after moving to Hawaii in 2002. When some friends signed up for the Honolulu Marathon, he decided to enter, too, as a "bucket list" achievement and committed to finishing no matter what.

"I knew if I registered for a race, (Hurricane) Katrina could happen tomorrow, but I would finish," he said. "I would cross the finish line just to get my money’s worth."

His first training run was from faculty housing in Upper Manoa to the Waioli Tea Room. "It’s like two long walks and back, and it nearly killed me," he said.

He soon found himself improving, especially after joining the marathon’s "fun run" series of preparatory races. The events help runners build up to the marathon by having them predict their finishing time before each event. In his first run over a 10-mile course, he was spot-on.

"I’ve done that a handful of times, and I think I’m always within 10 seconds for a 10-mile race," Yee said, attributing some of that to his good sense of rhythm, pacing and cadence.

The marathon experience was a revelation. He found himself getting applause merely for participating rather than as a reward for performing a musical feat on the piano.

"There was no pressure, and it wasn’t like I could have a memory slip," he said. "It was ‘after left, comes right, and then after right comes left.’"

Yee now competes regularly in marathons around the state. He’s finished 25 in the last 10 years, his best time coming in the 2008 Kauai Marathon at 3 hours, 58 minutes, 3 seconds. His once-flabby body has been reduced to 130 pounds — his high schoolweight.

He finds inner peace and simple enjoyment during his runs, which he does with his dog every day in his Enchanted Lake neighborhood. And he’s been able to apply the lessons learned from running marathons to music, especially in preparing his piano students for competitions.

"I’ll have students who ask, ‘Did you win?’ and I’m like, ‘Are you crazy?’" he said. "I tell them: ‘It’s not about winning, it’s about the process and everything. It’s about finishing. I want you to take a page out of that chapter when you do your next competition.’"

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