Amateur pianists get chance to shine
Piano Lesson
Amateur pianists get chance to shine
By Steven Mark
Special to The Seattle Times
The Seattle area is home to many fine professional pianists, such as Craig Sheppard, Mark Salmon and Byron Shenkman. These artists have toured the world and received high praise for their performances.
But Seattle also has many fine amateur pianists ' artists who have careers outside of music but also play piano with fervor and dedication that belies their amateur status. Some of them will be featured at a recital Thursday evening at the Sherman Clay piano dealership in downtown Seattle.
To these musicians, playing piano is more than just tickling the keyboard; it fulfills an artistic, creative urge that has blossomed not only into passionate practicing but also to performances worthy of the concert stage.
"There's an amazing number of good pianists in this town," said Eric Juvet, a software engineer. Juvet is part of an informal gathering of pianists who meet monthly to play for each other. It's a salon cum support group for piano addicts, with one group for advanced players and another for all comers.
"Each month a different person hosts, and we play whatever we want to play," said Juvet who, besides holding down a full-time job and playing tennis, practices piano for five hours a day. "All of our playing has improved really dramatically over time. When we first started, it was nothing to write home about, but the level of performance has really improved. ... I don't know why. It's totally different than taking lessons. The vibe rubs off or something."
Several local performers have participated in major amateur piano competitions around the world. Juvet performed at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of a competition.
Chung Lee, a retired architect, finished in sixth place in the finals of a major competition in Paris in 2004 and reached the semifinals this year. He says participating in such events provides excellent motivation.
Gerald Finkel, pathologist; Chung Lee, architect; Eric Juvet, software developer; and Kam Au, cyto-geneticist will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sherman Clay, 1624 Fourth Ave., Seattle; free, RSVP required for seating (206-622-7580).
"The reward is in the process, not in the final result," he said.
For Lee, performing on the piano has also rekindled cherished childhood goals but without the pressure of trying to develop a career as a performer. The Hong Kong native had studied music at the Royal Academy in England with hopes of making a career in music but found the pressure daunting. Playing the piano again as an amateur has been challenging and rewarding.
"I'm amazed that I can still improve," he said, "but it has happened because I am more serious in my way of solving problems. It's like jogging, the more you work the better you get."
Gerald Finkel, a retired pathologist at Harborview Medical Center, participated in the Paris competition and the Van Cliburn amateur competition in Fort Worth, Texas. He went more than 40 years between performances, having played a piano concerto in college before re-applying himself to the instrument a decade ago.
"When you're an amateur pianist and you take lessons, certain things happen," he said. "You get lonely. You get bored. It's really difficult to develop pieces and play on a really good piano in a nice hall with an audience that wants to hear you. In these competitions, you have an opportunity to play before a really knowledgeable audience ' and you get terrified doing it, because it never goes as well you like. It's more fun when it's over."
Both Lee and Finkel have studied with UW piano professor Craig Sheppard. "I have the greatest respect for these guys because here they've gone and done something else in life and they always wanted to do something with piano," said Sheppard. "In some ways, [playing piano] means more to them than to those who make it their job."
For those who don't go on the competitive circuit, the piano club provides educational opportunities as well. Every few months, the group hires a professional to give a master class. "With every teacher, you get to see what it is they think is important," Juvet said.
Bev Thomas, a retired medical administrator who's not in the recital, used to play organ in church but as a pianist she played mostly things like Christmas carols. She started taking lessons again in 1999.
"I'm working on getting the sound I want," she said. "You can get all the notes you want, but it's the sound that's the difficult part."
Thomas practices about two hours a day and appreciates every minute of it.
"When I was a kid, just to get me to practice one hour, that was a lot of work," she said, with a laugh.
Pianist Steven Mark is a Seattle Times computer analyst: 206-464-2083 or smark@seattletimes.com
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