|
||||
  
 
 |
Science and art of piano tax the brain (and fingers), award-winning USU student pianist says By
Jayme Gordy
"It is difficult to define what talent is. One must have it, but everything after that is work . . . work and the courage after every disappointment to try again." --Gina Bachauer, founder of an International Piano Competition. "This quote kept me going and got me where I am today," says USU student Deborah Reed, 21, who competed in the junior Gina Bachauer competition in Salt Lake City when she was 16. Reed has this quote memorized so it is with her through every practice and every competition. Reed performed last month in the USU Concerto Evening, featuring the winners of the 2001 student concerto competition. The piano piece was Scriabin's Concerto in f#, third movement. The Scriabin Piano Concerto is one of the lesser-performed concert works in the pianist's repertoire. "It is a very improvisatory piece," said Reed. Scriabin was a Russian composer who attended the Moscow Conservatory. This piece was written in the earlier years of Scriabins life when he was a staunch admirer of Chopin. "It sounds like Chopinesque with lots of ornaments and fioriturra material," said Reed. Fioriturra material is fast note embellishments. "It is in a form similar to a sonata type or classical concerto type form, but it sounds quite different," said Reed. "It has a lot of huge chords and sounds like a precursor to the music of Rachnaminoff in many ways." Performing the piece requires a fairly competent left hand, said Reed. Scriabin suffered an injury to his right hand so a lot of his work was done with his left . Most of Scriabin's work requires a strong left hand. Reed is dominant with her right hand so this was difficult to learn. "It is tonal and expands the traditional harmonic language, but it's quite tonal nonetheless, unlike many of his later works," said Reed. Reed has attended Utah State University for three years and completed her junior year this spring. She received the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation Accompanying Scholarship. Most of her money for this school year came from outside competitions, mainly ones from Idaho, where Reed grew up. She won the Grand Prize at the Tuesday Musicale and the Continuing Education Scholarship for her hometown, Idaho Falls. Reed is double majoring in piano performance and piano pedagogy (teaching piano) and minoring in political science. She will graduate in May 2002 unless she decides to turn her political science minor into a major. Reed would then graduate with a triple major in December 2003. Reed has been playing the piano since she was 8. She has not had a break or a summer off for 13 years. Most of her peers started playing the piano at 4 or younger. "The number of years doesn't matter that much; it's more the quality of training you had," said Reed. Reed practices for five hours a day, six days a week. "I try to do at least 350 hours a semester of practice," said Reed. "Getting ready to perform takes months, sometimes years," said Reed. Memorizing and learning the notes is not the hard part when getting ready to perform. It is the technical work that is tough. "Having the piece memorized is something I try to do each week before I take a piece in for a lesson," said Reed. The technical work involves a lot of musical thought. "I find that the best way to really be ready to perform a piece is to have ideas of your own," said Reed. It can take years to be ready for a performance. Studying a piece of music can take years to understand. "You can never get bored with it," said Reed. In her spare time Reed and her roommate, Shauna Lieifson, watch movies, play games, listen to classical piano music, go to church and go shopping. "We have late night talks that keep us up all night laughing," said Lieifson. Reed and Lieifson have know each other for three years. They spend a lot of their time in the music building, practicing. "We also accompany each other and have moments where we improvise together and play duets," said Lieifson. Reed chose to play the piano because it is all-encompassing. There are many notes to memorize when learning to play the piano. Some notes are simple and some are very complex. What Reed means by simple and complex is, it is simple to learn the notes, but it is complex to determine what to do with the notes. "I have to determine whether I should get louder or softer, and what mood I should try and portray," said Reed. "The piano taxes all your fingers, makes your brain work a million miles an hour. It's a science, it's an art, it's history, and it can be a full symphony. There are reasons why pianists and violinists stand out among other musicians," said Reed. In November 2000, Reed had the opportunity to play in Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City. She earned an audition with the Utah Symphony after winning second place in the Utah State Fair in Abravanel Hall. Her performance actually turned out be an audition. "Just being able to play for the director of the Utah Symphony on the stage in Salt Lake was amazing," said Reed. She also had an opportunity to play for an elderly choir that lives on USU campus during the summer. She accompanied the choir for a couple of hours and then proceeded to take requests from the "summer citizens" of Logan, many of whom travel north to escape the heat of Arizona in June and July. "I've never had so many compliments before in my life. It's fun to play for people who really appreciate it, even if they aren't the best musical critics," said Reed. Reed loves playing anything by Ravel or Beethoven, but when it comes time to perform in front of an audience she tends to get a little nervous. She used to get really nervous when she was younger, but has grown out of it since she has been to college. "I would make numerous trips to the restroom. I think one time I counted 17 trips in an hour before I had to perform," said Reed. Reed, 17, at the time, was in Boise performing in the Yamaha competition. At 13, she began taking Endoral, a medication to help her calm her nerves before she performed. This medication is called a beta blocker, which lowers her blood pressure and helps her perform better by reducing anxiety. Reed can get through her performances now without taking Endoral. "I learned that the key is preparation, pure and simple," said Reed. She never prepared herself for performances before she came to college. Reed now has a better understanding of how to prepare herself for her performances. Being confident with her work helps Reed perform better. "I feel Debby performs with a sense of calmness and confidence," said Lieifson. Reed said, "It's a mind game, and a huge part of that is being confident." "Like I said, the quote by Gina Bachauer keeps me going and gives me a great deal of confidence when I am playing the piano," said Reed.
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||