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Arts: Music
For Pianist Marina Lomazov, Music Is Life By Rhonda Jones
M E T R O S P I R I T
TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH 1223 Laney-Walker Boulevard
Fall Revival & Great Preachers’ Series
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ach year, Augusta Symphony brings a stunning array of guest musicians from all over the world. They begin their season this year with an invitation for you to come and see Ukrainian (by way of Oklahoma) pianist Marina Lomazov. She will knock down any preconceived notions you may have about the stuffy Classical pianist. She responded to our e-mail questions with a sense of humor and genial warmth and was a pleasure to communicate with. For one thing, she wrote, if you want to whoop and holler, that’s all right by her. That’s because she wants everyone – regardless of gender, age or race – to feel comfortable listening to classical music. “One has to let it in and really listen to it, and it will happen. You will be carried away. I also love spontaneous reactions from people, anything from whoops to clapping in between the movements, if the spirits move them so.” Asked how it feels to play, she said she has good days and bad days, and on the bad days, every note she plays irritates her. “But on the good days, I feel I can do and play anything. I feel like I have to just think music and it will play itself. It’s a magnificent feeling.” She said she began taking piano lessons around age 5, and that her mother made that happen in self-defense, because little Marina loved banging on the family piano. “I would sit at our old upright and literally hammer away for hours, while dutifully turning the pages of some old score,” she said. “The lessons were the way to stop torturing the household and to channel my energy a bit more efficiently.” Now she is the one helping young pianists channel their energy effectively, with private students, and a teaching position at Oklahoma State University. Primarily, she said, she wants to teach her students not to need her. “My goal is to make myself obsolete for my students,” she wrote. “In other words, teach them to be independent and confident musi-
September 14-16 cians with their own voice and their own unique way of saying things.” If she hadn’t become a professional musician, Lomazov said, she would probably still work with the creative arts, perhaps running PR for a museum, or teaching, she speculated. And when she’s not playing? “Actually,” she wrote, “I don’t have time to do much else. When I am not practicing, I am teaching. Performing is an all-consuming way of life. One feels guilty doing anything else. I feel guilty doing this interview,” she wrote, adding an emoticon-smile. “Seriously, I love to travel and meet people. I also love to read. Mostly I get to read when I travel.” I asked her, also, if she managed to keep her musical life and the rest of her life separate somehow. In the beginning, she said, when she was growing up in Kiev, Ukraine, it was separated. She had a “normal” childhood, she said. “I went on vacations with my parents, and did not practice for months during summers. But I had a wonderful teacher, Mr. Fundiler, whom I adore. … I was with him for 14 years, and then I immigrated to the U.S.” On Saturday, Sept. 20, she will help Augusta Symphony begin its 2003-04 Masterworks Series at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre at Augusta State University. A free preview lecture will be presented at 7 p.m. by Dr. Rosalyn Floyd. Afterward, Lomazov will play Glinka’s “Russian & Ludmilla: Overture,” Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” and Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 2.” Tickets cost $15, $30 and $40 for adults. Student tix are available at half price on concert evenings. For information, call Augusta Symphony at (706) 826-4705 or visit the Symphony’s Web site at www.augustasymphony.org. Augusta Symphony’s office is located at Sacred Heart Cultural Center on the corner of 13th and Greene Street, and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the door on concert evenings beginning at 7 p.m.
Sunday 8-11am Monday & Tuesday 7pm
GUEST PREACHERS Rev. Dr. Kevin Cosby Pastor, St. Stephen Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky Dr. Cosby earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY; Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY; and his Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary; Dayton, OH. In addition to his pastoral attribution, he is an accomplished author, lecturer, and educator. He serves as Professor Adjunct of Christian Ministries at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Dr. Cosby is scheduled to speak September 14-15th.
Rev. Martha Simmons Editor, the African American Pulpit Journal This editor and author earned a Master of Divinity from Emory University, Atlanta, GA, and Doctor of Laws from New College of California, School of Law, San Francisco, CA. She is the co-editor of 9.11.01: African American Leaders Respond to an American Tragedy, the editor of Preaching on the Brink, and co-author of A Study Guide to Accompany Celebration and Experience in Preaching. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts, and attends Boston University, where she is pursuing the Doctor of Theology. Rev. Simmons is scheduled to speak September 16th.
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