Discovery Middle School Piano Lab Students
Piano series provides world-class performances and education By Ashley Foor
Internationally recognized pianists visited IU South Bend throughout the 2019-20 academic year to provide a new perspective to musical performance. The Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts was thrilled to welcome an exciting, new addition for the event calendar, the IU South Bend Piano Series. The series featured five world known artists, who brought their talents to the IU South Bend campus in the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall, at different stretches throughout the academic year. Each artist performed for IU South Bend and the local community and presented a master class and seminar to students as part of the series. The IU South Bend Piano Series was underwritten by a generous grant from the South Bend area Music Teachers Association Stickley Scholarship Fund. In addition to master classes with IU South Bend students, the guest artists also performed an outreach concert for local area schools. For many of these students, it was their first time hearing a classical concert, let alone a world-class pianist. The goal was not to create world-class pianists, but to create a new audience with an appreciation for classical music.
48
arts.iusb.edu
“Training young students is so important. I started training in piano when I was four years old,“ Marvin Curtis, dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts says. “I wasn't trying to be a master class pianist; my mom did this to give us culture and make us stay out of trouble. A lot of students have not been exposed to classical music. For our school, younger students and our students, it’s a way to have a new perspective.” Christopher O’Riley kicked off the series on Sept. 20, 2019. Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, the pianist is known to millions as the former host of NPR’s From the Top. O’Riley performs around the world and has garnered widespread praise for his untiring efforts to reach new audiences. O’Riley was a huge success both during his performance and his outreach concert. O’Riley visited Discovery Middle School’s Piano Lab, that consisted of 150 students. The outreach performance led the students of the Piano Lab to make a visit to IU South Bend campus later that December, as IU hosted their winter recitals. The next concert in the series was on Nov. 8, 2019, and displayed IU South Bend’s brilliant Ketevan Badridze, interim Martin Endowed Chair of Piano. The talented Euclid Quartet also joined her on stage.
