NOTES FROM MY LIVES

by Andre Stepankowsky

Iwould be lying if I denied being a little jealous of Abrianna Church.

The Idaho-bred musician, who will perform her sixth solo recital in Longview on Sunday, Aug. 13, is a young classical music pianist who is winning praise and prizes across the West for her virtuosity and musicality. Her next Longview performance, scheduled for 4 p.m. at Northlake Church, is in part a homage to Longview piano teacher Martin Kauble, who died last year at age 59. Martin was not Abrie’s teacher, but he was so impressed by her talent after a chance encounter in Portland that he arranged several performances for her in Longview. She came to call Kauble her “Uncle Martian.”

Abrie, 24, says Kauble had a profound influence on her.

“Although I never took a lesson from him, Martin was a friend and mentor who helped me bridge numerous worlds: the separation between audience and performer, the emotional range between humor and solemnity, and personally misconceived divisions between sacred and secular. It was because of him I began to see my role as a performing artist with greater clarity and sense of purpose,” she says.

Her previous local performance, which took place online due to the pandemic, was a brilliant recital featuring only works by Franz Liszt. It included the whole set of the challenging and inventive Paganini Etudes.

More recently, Abrie has performed recitals featuring such demanding pieces as Igor Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor.”

On Aug. 13, she will play a selection of Opus 10 etudes by Frederic Chopin, six pieces for the piano Opus 118 by Johannes Brahms, sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and hymn arrangements by Kenneth Mays, her former piano instructor at Master’s University.

Abrie began her musical studies at age six. At times, her piano lessons required bi-weekly, 800-mile round trips to Provo, Utah.

In 2022, she graduated from The Master’s University, a Christian liberal arts school located just north of Los Angeles. She has won several competitions, including an honorable mention at the 2021 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition.

Deeply religious, Abrie sees her work as a means to glorify God and “do all the good I can do for fellow man.” She has begun collaborating with other musicians to set biblical scripture to music. Last Christmas, she set Matthew’s gospel account of the birth of Christ to music.

Abrie is looking forward to further development as a performer, composer, and musical collaborator. She is considering graduate school to further study piano performance and musical composition.

Her story has deep significance for me. Martin Kauble was my friend and last piano teacher, and I’m helping arrange Abrie’s recital to continue his passion for promoting Abrie’s career and classical music in general.

In addition, I, too, aspired in my teenage years to become a concert pianist. While I still love it and have given several local charity recitals, I concluded long ago that I did not have enough talent or zeal to achieve a significant concert career.

Most people don’t really understand the emotional, intellectual and physical demands it takes to reach that level.

I’ve heard some pianists say becoming a brain surgeon is easy by comparison. It’s a solitary pursuit and it takes a lot of luck as well as prodigious talent and work to “make it.”

And there’s so much emotional investment. Admitting — after literally thousands of hours of practice and social sacrifice — that a concert career was not in my future was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made.

There’s no doubt about it: Abrie has the talent and dedication needed to succeed. So although I’m a tad envious of her, I’m rooting for her all the way. I hope that you do, too —and come hear for yourself just how talented she is. •••

Award winning journalist Andre Stepankowsky is a former reporter and editor for The Daily News. His CRR columns spring from his many interests, including hiking, rose gardening, music, and woodworking. More of his writing is available through his online newsletter on substack.com by searching for “Lower Columbia Currents.”