Piano series provides world-class performances and education

Discovery Middle School Piano Lab Students

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. “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.

Badridze is the prizewinner of numerous international competitions, such as Newport International Piano Competition (UK), The World International Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition.

She shared that she was very excited about the series because of the education and knowledge the community will gain from these performers. To her, education and hands-on experience allowed her to become the educator she is today. She moved to the United States in 2000 from the country of Georgia and began her academic career at IU South Bend as a student of Alexander Toradze, who is now retired. She finished her education at IU South Bend earning her master’s degree and artist’s diploma.

Badridze said that her time with Toradze was great as it allowed her to travel and perform all over the world. She worked as his assistant while she was a student, and shortly after she began teaching her own classes at IU South Bend.

“The goal of this project is not only being able to perform recitals; were going to have master classes for students around the area too,” Badridze explains. “We’re even accepting applications for these master classes from different colleges in the area like Notre Dame, Andrews University, Goshen College etc. Also, high school students from the community may participate. This is a great opportunity for them to have master classes with some very high caliber artists.”

The third show in the series brought the outstanding duo out of Lawrence University, Anthony Padilla and Michael Mizrahi. Their concert took place Jan. 21, 2020.

The pair have known each other for almost a decade and have performed piano duets and piano four hand pieces together throughout the years.

They performed various styles of dance music from different countries during their time on campus. “We thought it would make a good program because of the music and then it kind of emerged that we were picking all dances. There is an element of dance that’s inherent to people playing together,” Mizrahi adds

The day before their performances at IU South Bend, they taught a master class to a few students. Mizrahi and Padilla said that the best part about touring around the country and teaching these master classes is that they get to share their love of music with others who feel the same way about music.

Both had a very early start playing the piano, and in fact, Mizrahi’s mother was a piano instructor, which only helped fuel his passion. Playing music at such a young age allowed them to develop the knowledge and talent to become accomplished performers and teachers.

To them, those passionate about music are a community, although sometimes small, and when they are able to share their passion with these students, it brings the community closer together.

Unfortunately, the final concert in the series was not able to take place on March 13, 2020, due to COVID-19. The wonderful Ursula Oppens was set to play on campus. Oppens is a prolific and critically acclaimed recording artist with five Grammy nominations. She is widely admired not only for her original perspective readings of music, but also for her knowing interpretations of the standard repertoire.

IU South Bend is proud to have been able to bring such an enriching musical experience to all of the students and staff on campus and around our community.