Sooner or Later.....

I once asked my piano professor at Yale if he ever heard from former students. Bruce Simonds scratched his head, as he always did when he was "thinking" and said "Only a few". I had only been teaching a few years, but I never forgot his words. It reminded me of what Virginia French Mackie said to us when we were her theory students at the University of Kansas CIty, way back in the 1950's. "Remember, you are teaching for the few". That meant just what she intended: get used to the fact that not every student thinks you are a genius and will light a candle at your shrine.

So when students write with news it is always a red letter day. CHRIS SARZEN, a brilliant student from Atlanta who was here at USC in the early 1980's, went on to get a Doctor of Medicine at Vanderbilt and has been practicing in the Atlanta area for quite a few years now. He has maintained his technique and has grown tremendously in artistry over the years. This Spring he entered the Atlanta Mozart Competition, won, and is at this very moment in Salzburg, Austria, studying for a few weeks with master teachers. Chris has continued to send me impressive CD's that he records at home. Some years ago he was traveling in England, and found an old Steinway in a village in the Lake District. He sent it to London to be restored, and it now sits in his living room in Atlanta. His recent recording of the Rachmaninoff Second Sonata is very powerful, one of the best I have heard. Chris plans to play alot more in the coming years, and I think it will be a successful second career in a very difficult field.

Nancy Hill Elton, one of my very first students at USC in the 1960's and a native of Columbia, was in town recently to play her most recent recital program for me. The hall at USC was being used to record, so Columbia College opened their doors to us and we used their splendid small recital hall with its venerable old Steinway. Nancy has developed a big following in Atlanta, and she is also soprano soloist at one of the biggest churches there. She did the incredible and got a Doctorate in Piano and a Doctorate in Voice. She played Beethoven Opus 81a, the Chopin Fourth Ballade, a group of Liszt pieces and the first set of Images by Debussy. She has natural technique and lots of drive, which she has tempered with beautiful sound and a composers sense of form. She was very effective in the Beethoven, where she avoided the pitfalls and opened up the emotional range of the work. Her Chopin is very secure, never hysterical, like so many tend to do, and always beautiful to listen to. Her natural technique shines in the Liszt, and she knows how to entertain. So many pianists are so serious in approach that they lose, or never develop this quality, but Nancy has enough showmanship to reach out to the audience and make them listen. Best was the Debussy, especially the moving "Homage a Rameau" one of the most difficult of all Debussy piano pieces. It is rare to hear intellectual qualities combined with the ability to convey the exact emotional content, but she made this happen. Some family matters have held her back of late, but hopefully she can soon reach out to the audiences that await her.