Stillness in Art.....

A swing around the state last week let me take the temperature of artistic
appreciation at two schools of widely varying missions. Returning to the
South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts in Greenville after a five
year absence, I found a strong sense of mission and a warm environment. Like
all schools that can afford it, there is a broader range of administrative
positions in place, in other words, more people to handle the outreach,
publicity, student welfare...the list is rather impressive. The facility
has really outgrown its physical space, and probably was built too small
in the first place. For instance, there is no hall big enough to seat the
entire student body.

All the above aside, I was there to do a masterclass for piano students, and
on the heals of that, a Piano Portrait entitled "The Young Debussy". The
masterclass was well prepared, and the students were receptive and flexible.
One can only do so much with a student playing a large work in the span of
half an hour, so the challenge is to strike a balance between the immediately
possible, and the attainable in the next few days or weeks. Stephen Taylor, one
of our own from USC School Of Music, is doing a fine job, working well within the
limits of having his students for only two or three years. He has brought a stable
environment to the piano area, and has the right personality to reach high school
age students.

As for the Piano Portrait, the setting up of the equipment was a bit dicey, as the
young man doing the set up was not very familiar with PowerPoint. Nevertheless,
a picture finally appeared on the screen, and was big enough to be effective in
a large space. It rather amuses me that very few actually tackle PowerPoint as
a creative tool. It rather remains in the charts, graphs, numbers milieu, beloved
by people who have to present that kind of information in their work. Going beyond
this into the creative world of sound, image, performance and theater, is quite a
different world. The medium is still the message, but the power of imagination and
creativity can lift the whole medium to an entirely different level.

I was impressed with the quality of listening from 100 young musicians. There is
such power in the stillness of quiet passages, allowing the performer, if all systems
are on go, to weave a spell. IS there anything more profound than total quiet from
an audience absorbed in the music?

Returning to Winthrop University is always a pleasure. The huge auditorium in the midst
of the campus still dominates the landscape. Winthrop has such a distinguished history
in bringing music education to the fore in South Carolina in the early 20th Century.
I played there first 50 years ago, and returned many times over the years, not only for
my own performances, but to hear many great artists who performed there. I remember
particularly a performance by Arthur Rubinstein, where an overflow audience extended
onto the stage. The New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez was another landmark
event.

There is a feeling of deja-vu at Winthrop. The music facilities remain the same as
decades before, and obviously their facility has served them well, if somewhat faded
today. The small recital hall has the most wonderful Steinway concert grand, and it
fills the long, narrow hall easily. The PowerPoint slides looked gorgeous, and the
audience was attentive and supportive throughout a 70 minute presentation. Matt Manwarren is a calming presence, and he had a large class of students in attendance.It was wonderful also to have Ann Herlong in the audience, a fine pianist who has contributed so much to our state over the years. I am impressed with many of the younger faculty at the many colleges and universities around South Carolina. The fact that so many attended USC is a feather in our cap. Its amazing to look back over half a century and witness the musical growth in our state.