University Daily Kansan / Thursday, November 5, 1987
Arts/Entertainment
7
Piano professor draws students, attention to KU
By KIRK ADAMS
Staff writer
A KU music professor may instruct students in concert piano one day, and the next day travel to Europe, the Far East or the Soviet
Union for his own concert performances.
Professor Sequira Costa, Cordelia Brown Murphy Distinguished Professor of Piano, is not only a world-famous concert pianist, but also one of the most respected instructors of concert piano.
Costa has attracted students from Sweden, England, Japan, South America and his native Portugal. He performs during most of December and January and much of May, June, July and August. He has from 45 to 50 performances a year.
Several of his students are beginning professional careers as concert pianists.
Alexandra David, Lisbon, Portugal, graduate student, is one of them. David began studying piano when she was five. She came to the United States five years ago to study under Costa after she graduated from the conservatory of music in Lisbon.
David said, "He's very dedicated to his students. We all have special problems and he pays special attention to all of us."
On Dec. 19, David will be performing in Milan, Italy, to commemorate the Brazilian composer Villa Lobos. She said the performance would be the start of her international career.
David said she was awarded the performance when her mother spoke to the promoters of the concert. When her mother told them she was a student of Costa's, the promoters asked her to perform without ever having heard her play.
having heard her play David said that being allowed to
James Larson/KANSAN
KU professor Sequeira Costa, left, gives piano instruction to Alexandra David, Lisbon, Portugal, graduate student. Costa is considered one of the best concert piano instructors in the world and primarily teaches students who hope to play professionally.
perform at the concert was a great honor and responsibility, and that she was practicing hard.
She said she didn't mind that Costa was a tough instructor. "He's really demanding because he believes in his students," she said.
Most of her time is spent playing piano but she is dedicated to her studies. she said.
"Right now I feel it's part of me. I cannot live without it anymore," she said
Another of Costa's students is Helena Carvalho, Mamede, Portugal, graduate student, who recently completed her master's piano recital. Carvalho graduated from the music conservatory in Oporto, Portugal, before coming to the United States about 2½ years ago.
Artur Pizarro, Lawrence special student, may be Costa's star student. This summer, Pizarro won the grand prize at the 10th International Viana da Motta Piano Competition in Lisbon, considered one of the most important competitions for beginning concert pianists. Costa founded the competition in 1957 and still directs it. Pizarro was among 135 contestants from 35 countries.
Carvalho said that Costa expected his students to be thorough when they interpreted a piece, and their final performances must be nearly perfect.
Pizarro's victory in Lisbon confirmed his rank as a professional-level concert pianist and let agents know that he qualifies to perform solo recitals and concerts with symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad.
She said she hoped to become a concert pianist but knew it would be hard to succeed. She also would like to teach piano.
Fizarro began receiving lessons from Costa when he was only 5 years old.
Costa said that when he first heard Pizarro play, he thought, "It couldn't be a young man of 5 years old."
Costa said he was so amazed by the child's brilliance that he felt there
must have been some magical force compelling him to play the way he did.
Recently, Costa married Pizarro's mother, making Pizarro his stepson.
Pizarro said he thought Costa's extraordinary ability as a performer was one reason he was such a good piano instructor.
Also, it's the way he works, the detail in which he works and how he allows you to develop by yourself." Pizarro said.
Costa said he thought talented piano students deserved to be guided by an instructor who was as experienced as he was.
"I enjoy teaching. I feel it's an obligation to me." he said.
Costa said his concert performances did not interfere too much with his teaching. He tries to schedule his performances around his classes. When that is not possible, he reschedules his students' practices.
he has attracted some excellent graduate students here and they have done very well," Angeletti said. He said that because Costa attracted good students, the department benefited.
"They always have their 14 hours a semester." he said.
Richard Angletti, professor of music, said Costa's experience as an international concert performer benefited Costa's students. Angletti said Costa was a super instructor for graduate students.
Stephen Anderson, chairman of the music and dance department, said several instructors, including himself, continued professional performance careers outside of their teaching.
Additionally, Angeletti said, "Having him perform here has been a great experience for all."
Since Costa is so famous, a person might wonder why he continues to
teach at KU. Costa said there were many reasons.
He said he did not like big cities — he has experienced the city life of places like Paris and London but was tired of them. He said he thought Lawrence was the perfect place to live and teach.
"I feel that Lawrence gives me the 'perfect atmosphere for practice, for play.'"
Although Costa lives in Lawrence, he still keeps in touch with his friends and professional contacts from around the world, he said.
"All the time I’m quite happy as long as I’m making music with my students," he said. "It's a continuous process of discovery that enables me to rejoice all the time. It’s very rewarding. So, I could say that I'm a happy man."
Costa can be demanding as a teacher. That is because becoming a successful concert pianist is difficult. Competition is tough, he said.
"If they don't present me a good lesson — out! They must work very hard."
He said certain qualities were essential for a student's success in concert piano.
"They must have a certain gift for music," he said. "They must have perfect pitch — hearing — they must listen well."
Prospective concert pianists also must have a strong will to practice, Costa said. They must be disciplined like an athlete, he said, and they must dedicate their life to the piano. He said a good piano instructor had
"Whatever they play, I immediately demonstrate on the other piano." Costa said.
Although he demands much of his students, they don't find him annoying, he said. "I have a special way of teaching which please the student."
Costa said his students got a lot of satisfaction from their work.
"They realize music is part of their art, their nature," he said.
Films show changes in Soviet arts policy
Staff writer
By BRIAN BARESCH
The Soviet film festival that opens tomorrow at the Tivoli Theatre in Kansas City, Mo., represents a significant change in Soviet policy
toward the arts and toward freedom of expression.
Five of the six films being shown over the next week have been censored or banned in the Soviet Union in the past. The festival's feature attraction, "Trial on the Road," was made in 1971 but sat on the shelf for 15 years until it was released last year.
The director of photography, Yasha Sklansky, who now lives in the United States, will be at the theater for tomorrow's showings.
for to borrow.
The films are part of a festival of 17 films shot in all 15 Soviet republics. The larger festival was organized by New York's Museum of Modern Art and has played in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and New York.
Jerry Harrington, owner of the Tivoli Theatre, said he would have liked to bring the entire festival to Kansas City. But because of a limited audience, he said, he thought the show would run only one week. Harrington said he selected what universally were considered the six best films of the show.
The larger exhibit has been touring the United States for about a year. Many of these films have not been seen outside the Soviet Union before.
"Trial on the Road," directed by Alexei German, concerns a Russian soldier in World War II. Captured by the Nazis, he joins them in hopes of escaping. The film was originally shelved because it showed the defector in a sympathetic light, Sklansky saud.
The U.S. tour is also the first time Soviet films have been shown abroad in their original languages instead of in Russian. Two of the films are from Russia, two from Soviet Georgia, one from Byelorussia and one from Uzbekistan.
"In Russia, if you are captured during the war you are a traitor." Skansky said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. "It is considered your fault."
Sklansky made the film in 1971 with the approval of the Soviet government, but in the year it took to finish the film Soviet policy had changed, and the film was never released.
"In Russia they never shelve bad movies, only the best," he said. "We didn't want to do an anti-Soviet film, we just wanted to express our sympathy."
Last year, filmmaker Elem Kilimov was elected to the top office in the Union of Cinematographers. Kilimov's election was a sharp departure from the usual practice of the state choosing film officials. Along with Kilimov came young, bold filmakerms who swept two-thirds of the union's seats away from the old guard.
Harrington attributed the Soviet Union's sudden release of the films in part to Gorbachev's policy of "glassnost," or openness.
Skiansky said, "Movie makers making decisions is better than bureaucrats doing it.
Two of Klimov's films, "Come and See" and "Farewell," will be shown at the festival this weekend.
Sklansky and his wife left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1974. They lived in Kansas City, Mo., for $2\frac{1}{2}$ years before moving to Los Angeles in 1977.
"Come and See" is the first of two films by director Elem Klimov, who helped spur the new Soviet openness in cinema. "Come and See" is about a teen-age boy who lives through the horror of the Nazi annihilation of his Byelorussian village.
"Farewell," the second film by Klimov, is about a village's forced evacuation from an island in central Siberia. A new hydroelectric plant will raise the water level to submerge the island, taking the villagers' heritage with it.
Other movies showing in the festival this week include "The Legend of Suram Fortress," directed by Sergei Paradjanov and Dodo Abashidze. Paradjanov was sent to a labor camp on heresy and homosexuality charges but was later released.
The film is based on an ancient Georgian legend about a woman who is abandoned by a prince, becomes a soothsayer and helps her former lover win a battle. "The Legend of Suram Fortress," which is told in song, dance and visual poetry, is Paradjanov's first film since his release.
"Trial on the Road" will be shown tomorrow at 6 and 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at 3:30, 6 and 8:30 p.m.
"The Legend of Suram Fortress" will be shown at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m.
Sunday; "Come and See" at 5 and 8 p.m. Monday; "The Revolt of the Daughters-in-Law" at 5, 7 and 9 p.m.
Tuesday; "Farewell" at 5 and 8 p.m.
Wednesday; and "Blue Mountains" at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday.
"The Revolt of the Daughters-in-Law" is a comedy from Uzbeckistan, directed by Melis Abzalov. It centers on a family dominated by a matriarchal grandmother, and her conflict with a rebellious newcomer to the clan.
"Blue Mountains" is a Georgian comedy of manners by Eldar Shengelaya. In a satire of the Soviet publishing business, a writer trying to sell a manuscript is confronted by self-serving bureaucrats.
John Lewis, Kansas City, Kan., junior, leads members of the KU in their annual fall concert 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union Inspirational Gospel Voices through choir practice.The group will perform Ballroom.
Voices carry on rich gospel tradition
"Up above my head, I hear music in the air. There must be a God somewhere."—From a Negro spiritual
spiritual.
By JAVAN OWENS
Staff writer
T hat music is gospel, special songs of love, peace, joy and unity. The KU Inspirational Gospel Voices has filled the air with the music for nine years, said John Lewis, Kansas City, Kan., junior, and the chair director.
"This music goes way back to slavery days," Lewis said. "These songs generated messages of freedom to other slaves, like in the underground railroad, for example. The songs also conveyed a message of hope for the future."
The group, which has about 50 members, will continue its tradition of an annual fall concert at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kansas Union Ballroom. They have invited special guests Keith Tribitt and the Elements of Faith, a Kansas City, Kan., gospel group, to help them celebrate.
Joe Miles, a former KU student, organized the choir in 1978. Until then, no campus group carried on the tradition of the gospel sound, Lewis said.
The absence of a gospel group on a major university campus was disconcerting, Lewis said. Historically, campus gospel groups have been the only recognition of the music at universities because gospel has not been part of academic music programs.
"For a long time, people felt that gospel music was not legitimate, although jazz originated
from it," Lewis said. "Now, there are many gospel musicians who are well-respected in the music industry."
Dick Wright, associate professor of music history, said he knew that gospel had influenced jazz, but that the details of the links were unfamiliar to him. Wright said, however, that jazz shared many of the rhythmic chords of the gospel sound.
He said that because of the growing interest in non-traditional music, such as gospel, many schools would have to consider it as a discipline in the future.
in the future.
"I do see a change coming because fewer and fewer students are majoring in music," Wright said. "But more students are becoming interested in different fields of music that are of special interest to them."
One of the musicians in the KU gospel choir, Wayne Webb, Shawnee junior, said that gospel, in many respects, was more difficult than other traditional music because the musician did not follow a score.
"It takes a lot more patience," Webb said. "In sheet music, it's all laid out there for you. You have to be more imaginative playing by ear."
to listen.
Historically, Webb said, gospel has depended on musicians understanding the music by ear. They have had to pick up a chord and then recreate it by memory.
good mood.
Helaine Derritt, Leavenworth junior, said that
have to be more imaginative. Webb's interest in the group is not only musical. He said the choir provided a social outlet for the students.
Middle school playing for it," Webb said. "We are just like a family of 50 people. Practice is like a weekly retreat. When you leave, you are in such a good mood."
the uplifting message of the music attracted her to the chair. She said that gospel music was just as potent as an encouraging word or even a sermon.
"This is a source of inspiration," Derritt said. "Sometimes, with studies and everything else, I don't know how I'll get through the week. But after rehearsal, I feel better."
Derritt does not discount the hard work that the members exert trying to perfect a song. She said it was frustrating at first. But after a song was perfected, she said, there was a sense of jubilation and confidence.
"Gospel is what you feel within, in your heart,
in your soul." Derritt said.
Delmetri Bynum, Topeka senior, said that although the music could be good for all the soul's ills, the spiritual implications scared many away from the music.
Bynum said that the choir's ultimate goal was to spread cheer rather than religious propaganda.
"Those who have been in contact with the music are the ones who can really understand it." Bynum said. "Gospel is a tradition. It is an integral part of black culture.
"We're not going around singing about banning certain books, or suggesting for people to take this class or that class. We are just trying to spread the gospel."
the mission of carrying the good news is renewed every Tuesday when the choir members pack a small room in Murphy Hall. The accompanist strikes a chord, and the choir members begin to clap their hands. Then music reverberates through the empty halls and is carried out through the windows and into the open air.