Happy Mother's Day

            On Mother’s Day I woke up to sun streaming through the windows of Sarah’s apartment in Pullman.  We were all still glowing from Johnny’s graduation the day before, but it was time to shift gears. Sarah put her hair up and slipped into a pair of flat shoes.  She gathered up her music while John and I packed our bags. Then we pointed our car north toward Spokane.

                Sarah, a Junior, is majoring in piano performance.  She was competing in Music Fest at Gonzaga University.  Her boyfriend Andy, a Senior who is also a piano performance major, was also playing three pieces. He’s the top piano performance major in WSU’s music department.

Andy Romanick and Sarah Stark

                On the hour and a half car ride over, we talked about how the competition had gone last year, and how the semester had gone for Sarah. We also talked about the advantages and pitfalls of dating another piano performance major. Nobody but another piano performance major could understand the stress, or the nuances in different pieces. But, people would naturally compare them, so they’d have to guard against becoming overly competitive with each other.

                When we arrived at Gonzaga, Sarah signed in. She had a horrible cold so we came armed with cough drops, tissues, hand sanitizer, and water bottles. There were several other musicians from WSU there and if they had any jitters, they hid them well.

                Sarah was the first to play in her class, and her performance of Prokofiev’s Suggestion Diabolique was solid. The judge, who had an impressive musical pedigree, gave her some advice after she finished playing. She painted a background for the piece. Sarah already knew that the piece was about the devil being diabolical. The judge told Sarah that she was a beautiful, young lady, and she didn’t think that Sarah had the devil in her, but she thought the audience should be terrified when they heard this piece.

Sarah got a glimmer in her eyes. The judge asked her to play a few measures, and see if she could make it sound more terrifying, more devilish. Sarah nodded that she’d try. Then, she aggressively dug into the piano. The judge looked startled, but pleased. 

                We listened to a few more pianists in Sarah’s class. Then we had to go downstairs into another room for her to play her Bach. That judge also offered some good advice. Again we had to leave for Sarah to warm up for the next class.

On the way, Sarah checked back with her first group. She was excited that she’d been called back. The judge had chosen her to play Suggestion Diabolique again. She had to have chosen at least one other person to play again in the “play-off.”

In the practice room, Sarah asked me to see if she had a fever. Her head felt a little warm, but I’ve always tested for a fever by feeling my kids’ hands. Hers were cooler than her head, but her hands are always cold before a piano performance.

                We rushed back upstairs for the play-off. Sarah popped a cough drop in her mouth and we entered the room. That’s when we saw who she’d be playing against---Andy!

                Two sets of parents acknowledged each other across a quiet room.  The judge and several others sat behind the grand piano, poised to listen. Andy adjusted the bench, and settled in. He played the opening notes of Scriabin’s Etude in C Sharp minor, op. 42, no. 5, and continued playing flawlessly. His piece is extremely complex, but he made it sound effortless. We all applauded, Sarah smiled at him as he picked up his music, and scrambled out of the room to get to his next performance.

                Now it was Sarah’s turn. She was all business. She adjusted the bench, and looked for the judge to nod signaling her to begin. That’s when she attacked the piano. The difference between this performance and her first one was staggering! This time, it truly was terrifying! The audience was stunned, yet couldn’t look away. It seemed like all of our hair should have been blowing straight back from the sound of the piano. The judge had a huge smile on her face. Her body rocked in time with Sarah’s playing. When she finished, there was a slight pause of silence, then loud applause. We were glad that we weren’t the judge because she had a tough decision to make.

                The attendant sitting outside the room had an amazed look on her face as we headed down the hallway to a practice room. Once she got inside the room, our elegant, slender daughter with her eggplant colored lace top, and black slacks, jumped up high in the air and clicked her heels. It had been one of her top performances (the piano playing, not the heel clicking, although that was pretty good too).

                When she entered the class to play her Schumann piece, the attendant  made Sarah sit right behind the judge, in the front row with the rest of the piano players. John and I were relegated to desks across the room.

                A Chinese girl played Chopin. Then the door opened and a lady asked if Sarah Stark was in the room. Sarah raised her hand. The woman handed her the Prokofiev music. John and I could see that there was a certificate on top of the book, but couldn’t tell what it said.

                Sarah looked over at us with even bigger eyes than her usual huge eyes. She tried to mouth something to us, but we’re horrible lip readers. The only sound in the room was the judge writing excruciatingly long notes about the Chinese girl’s performance. Sarah sneaked her cell phone out of her pocket and gave John a pointed look. (Cell phones are supposed to be off when you enter the performance rooms.)

                John slid his cell phone out of his pocket. I was sitting behind him leaning over his shoulder. Sarah’s hands were texting almost as fast as she can play piano. She stopped and looked at us. It was today’s version of passing notes in class. We waited and waited for her text to beam up to a satellite and back down to us four rows across the room.  The judge kept scratching away at the comments page. Finally, her text lit up the screen on John’s phone. ALL CAPS, “I WON!!!!!!”

                I’m surprised that we weren’t kicked out of the room for thunderous heart beats and silly grins. Once we broke out of that room, we were free to celebrate. Almost instantly, Sarah thought of Andy. Before she could say anything, I told her that I was sure Andy would be happy for her and that if he had to win silver, I was sure he’d rather she was the one who got the gold, than someone else. When both of them made it into the play-off, it was a win-win situation.

                To celebrate, we went to Red Robin. While she was playing, Johnny and his girlfriend Sarah were driving over to Spokane from Pullman to give our Sarah a ride back to campus because John and I were leaving for Puyallup directly from Spokane. They called when they were close, and we ordered for them.

                When they arrived, Sarah announced that she’d won gold and Johnny high fived her across the table. Sarah had been calling Andy to see if he and his family could meet us at Red Robin, but he wasn’t answering. She guessed that he’d been called back for his Beethoven piece. Mid-way through our burgers, he called. He’d won gold on the Beethoven, and in an unprecedented move, the judge at their play-off had gotten an exception and awarded both Andy and Sarah gold!

                Sitting at that table with two freshly graduated college kids, and my daughter holding her gold medal made my Mother’s Day the best ever!

                Follow up: On the following Tuesday, Sarah and Andy were invited to play piano and be interviewed on Spokane’s public radio station. Her grandparents in New York and Hawaii got to hear the broadcast along with many family friends and their piano teachers.

Laura Keolanui Stark is still enjoying her irreplaceable Mother’s Day gifts: Johnny and Sarah. If you want to hear the broadcast, you may be able to access in on KCPQ’s website as a podcast under Music Fest 2011. You can also hear both of the pieces Sarah and Andy played on YouTube. My apologies that this blog  was posted late. I am posting it from Milan, Italy—a blog about that is coming. Laura can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Milestones

     This weekend was a weekend of milestones.

     The first milestone was my daughter’s. She moved out of her dormitory and into an apartment in December on her own. A friend of hers is studying abroad for a semester and Sarah’s sub-letting her one-bedroom apartment. John and I have never seen “the apartment,” so we were relying on GPS, a campus map from the visitor’s center, and directions from Sarah via cell phone to find her new digs.

Sarah Stark at her new apartment near WSU.

      Just a block away from the President’s house, nestled in among fraternity and sorority houses, her apartment is one of four in a huge, 1920-30s (?) house. We carried our bags up onto her welcoming front porch, up one flight of stairs, and she turned the key to let us in.  

       The door opened to reveal vintage character: high ceilings, spacious rooms, white mission style moldings framing generous wide doorways into each room. Tall windows let light pour in. Her bedroom is bigger than her bedroom at home, and looks out on the street. The kitchen, once the back porch, overlooks the town of Pullman. We went shopping and found a little half-moon bistro table with two stools so she can sip her tea at breakfast and greet the day. There’s a fire escape at one window, so I told her she’d definitely have to watch West Side Story.

       The wooden floors are painted navy blue and the walls are beige. The silver old-style radiators are ornate. She’s got a good eye for decorating and the pictures and bedding she brought from her dorm fit perfectly. It was comfortable and warm with an old European style.

       She had planned for our visit. There were cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and all kinds of loose tea for us to choose from. She’d also gotten a key made for us, so we could come and go while she was in class.

        Johnny’s milestone happened Saturday night. In December, he found out that he had won the Washington Idaho Young Composer’s Competition. His piece, March, made its world premiere on January 29, 2011 at the Domey/Gladish Auditorium in Pullman, Washington. The auditorium filled as we sat front and center, anticipating the big moment. The orchestra tuned. The lights dimmed. The conductor introduced Johnny, then raised his baton, and the hall was filled with the sound of his piece, March.  

Composer John K. Stark.

        Johnny’s explained in the program notes:

March was originally written for solo piano. Most marches in America are upbeat pieces written for wind band, and are not normally played in the concert hall. I wanted to compose a different kind of march, one that stepped outside the norm. The idea of playing a march in a concert setting instead of the typical outdoor venue intrigued me. I also wanted to create a ‘darker’ sounding march as a contrast to most American marches. Inspired by Russian-style marches, March was written for orchestra rather than band to utilize the vast color palette and dynamic range of the orchestra.      

           

After the final note was played, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Johnny beamed. We all did: family, and friends, many who had traveled across the state for this special night. 

Composer John K. Stark with his parents: John and Laura Stark.

Throughout the night, at intermission, and later in “the yellow room,” people told Johnny how much they enjoyed his piece. Most said that they didn’t think they were going to like it because it’s a modern piece, but after they heard it, they were surprised that they really enjoyed it. The funniest comment was from a gentleman in his 70s. He told Johnny that he liked March, asked if he’d ever been to Russia, then asked Johnny if he was a dirty Commie.

       Later that night we toasted Johnny in celebration. He wisely noted that even though his piece was recorded and we’d be able to listen to it on DVD, there was nothing like hearing it played by an orchestra, live, the only way that composers like Beethoven’s and Mozart’s works were originally heard. He thanked us all for coming to share the debut with him.

       We fell asleep in Sarah’s apartment with the background sounds of a frat party going on across the street reminding us of our college days. 

       When we woke up, all was quiet, and it was snowing! Silver dollar sized flakes sifted down covering campus. As a true West-sider, I was excited, and had a sense of wonder about the falling snow! From her air mattress and sleeping bag in the living room, Sarah looked up out the window, and sleepily observed, “If the flakes are that big, then it’s not really that cold out.” Three semesters at WSU and she’s a seasoned East-sider.

        Five days later, Johnny was at a campus coffee shop when a professor approached him. He recognized Johnny from the concert, and told him that he takes his four year old son to classical music concerts all the time. He said that his son doesn’t usually say anything about the music, but after hearing Johnny’s song, he exclaimed, “I really liked that song!”

        This week at WSU the Music Department is holding their FOCAM music festival. Johnny had two of his compositions for clarinet and flute played. A few days before FOCAM, a reporter from The Daily Evergreen, the WSU student newspaper, interviewed him. “’Most professional performing groups tend to play old music,’ Stark said. ‘It’s hard to get people to play new music because the public mainly likes music from the Classical or Romantic periods. There needs to be a forum for contemporary music.’”

        Two major milestones for our two “children” making their way in the world.

---DVD’s and Blu-Rays of the Washington Idaho Symphony with March are available from Skeeterbuggins Productions. Web: http://www.skeetrbuggins.com/iwashjan2011.htm. 

---You can see the article “Annual art and music festival starts today” in the 2/3/11 edition of The Daily Evergreen. Their website is: http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/33694.

Laura Keolanui Stark has quite a stack of programs from the Washington Idaho Symphony. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.