Evjue grant provides opportunity for piano performance

A piano student's lot is a lonely one. They practice and perfect their instrument in solitude and usually perform only for the critical ears of their professors and peers. They rarely have the opportunity to perform before a lay audience or with other musicians, unlike members of an orchestra or choir.

That all changed at UW–Madison when Catherine Kautsky, professor of piano received an Evjue Foundation grant for a piano outreach program. The program included community performances and inventive collaborations with students in dance, theater and English.

Kautsky's goal was to give piano students performance experience, essential in music education, while benefiting the university and community. "It's so hard for students to always be judged," says Kautsky. "This program gets us back to the music, back to performing for people who are there for the sheer joy of hearing music."

Only in its first year, Kautsky says the program has been more successful than she ever thought possible. Sixteen students performed on pianos provided by Ward-Brodt for appreciative community members who normally would not attend a concert of classical piano music. They played for elementary and high school students, guests at a homeless shelter, hospital patients, prison inmates and residents of senior centers.

Unlike typical classical music performances, these concerts allowed performers to interact with the audience. The students introduced the pieces, explained to the audience what they would hear and gave them tips on how to listen. For example, they could listen for a familiar folk melody or that a certain section would sound like water falling.

"Talking to the audience was hard for a lot of us at first," says Kate Campbell, a first-year master's student in piano and the project assistant working with Kautsky on the grant. "We're not usually in that position. But it helped us as performers. If we promised the audience they'd hear something, we had to deliver."

The connection between the student performers and audience continued after the playing ended. The audience was eager for more information. "What's the difference between Mozart and Beethoven?" "How do you feel when you're playing?" "How long have you been studying piano?" "What kinds of music do you listen to?" Common ground was discovered in a prison — an inmate and student both like Miles Davis.

The program proved to be popular among Kautsky's students and more participated than she'd anticipated. As the program grew, the students developed a sense of ownership; the performances became a shared responsibility, and bonds were created.

The young pianists also were impacted through collaborations with student performers in theater and dance and learned that their art need not be a solitary one. "I will never forget the change in my students' performance of Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' once it was played in response to spoken lines from Shakespeare, rather than as a lonely event at the piano," Kautsky says.

Last year's performance repertoire and collaborations included:

• Peggy Choy, a lecturer with the Dance Program, and dance students presented choreography of Schoenberg, Op. 23.
• Theater students of Susan Sweeney, voice coach in the Department of Theatre and Drama, presented readings from Shakespeare to Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," and the Ogden Nash narration to Saint Saens' "Carnival of the Animals."
• Ballroom dancers collaborated on a program called "The Dancing Piano."
• Piano students presented a sampling of 250 years of piano literature with their own commentary.
• A student in communication arts narrated an all-Beethoven program.

The season ended at Meriter Retirement Community and Mills Concert Hall with a re-creation of Erik Satie's "Parade," which premiered in 1917. "Parade" got its name from the small afternoon shows put on by Parisian fairs and circuses. In the original performance Satie composed the music, Jean Cocteau wrote the scenario, Pablo Picasso designed the costumes and sets, and Leonide Massine was the choreographer.

Kautsky's version was based on research done by students in an honors course on the literature of the avant-garde taught by Cyrena Pondrom, professor of English and women's studies. Choy and her students supplied the dance, scenery and costumes were created by art students, and sound effects were provided by percussion studio.

Kautsky already is developing programs for next year. Under discussion are a Bach concert that will contrast computer-generated Bach with the real thing and a Schumann program that will present his music along with 19th century theories of mental illness. "The effect of the program on my students has been enormous," says Kautsky. "Students who have never played for anyone but their own families and fellow students have seen the power of music to reach people of all ages and classes."