Library concert honors alumna
Piano music reverberated throughout the Merrill-Cazier Library Monday afternoon during “an experiment in performance art,” said library Special Collections and Archives associate Dean Brad Cole.
The music was part of an exhibit for Frances Winton Champ, a renowned concert pianist and composer who lived in Cache Valley for more than 60 years.
The USU music department paid to have a 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano moved into the library for the occasion. Passersby stopped to gather and listen to students of The Caine College of the Arts play selected pieces either composed or played in past concerts by Champ — a rarity, in that she was a concert pianist from Logan.
“I know what you’re all thinking — this is a library,” said USU exhibit curator and student Jeff Lyon, in opening remarks. “I agree with you it’s a library, but we’re going to have a concert.”
Lyon, a senior in music education, said he became interested Champ’s story while working in Special Collections and Archives at the library, a year and a half ago, where he helped process documents donated to the university by the Champ family. What started out as an idea about her music turned into a full-on exhibit about Champ’s life as a musician, with an internship grant from the Champ family for Lyon.
“It was just a project for the summer, because I was really interested in it, and I wanted to do something fun,” Lyon said. “So I did it.”
The exhibit includes several large panels depicting Champ’s life as a composer, a pedagogue and a performer. Computers are set up so people can access the International Music Score Library Project at imslp.org, which houses Champ’s compositions.
Lyon said Champ, out of the three categories shown, was mainly a performer, but she also took the time to teach onstage. She also composed lesson books geared toward teaching piano to young children.
Champ, raised in Minnesota, came to live in Utah, after she met her husband Frederick Champ, in 1921. She was trained as a classical concert pianist and attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and later the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. The majority of her twenty-plus years as a performer occurred in Utah.
“In a sense, she was very ahead of her time as a feminist,” Lyon said.
Lyon said she challenged the norms of her age, performing and composing under her own name, instead of Mrs. Frederick P. Champ, something most women of that time did not do.
Frances Champ is well remembered for her dedication to her music. Herb Champ, the only living child of Frances and Frederick Champ, said he remembers how his mother spent much of her time with community involvement and practicing piano.
“She practiced eight to 10 hours a day to be a concert pianist,” Lyon said.
Frederick Champ is remembered for his contributions to the university while serving on the Board of Trustees, from 1925 to 1941. A student in landscape architecture, he also helped execute a master plan for the university. Several buildings were built during his tenure on the board, including Lund Hall and the Family Life Building. Champ Hall, in Old Main, and Champ Drive are named after him.
Lyon said Frances Champ, being a woman and from Cache Valley, is no longer as well known as many classical composers, but in her time she was known as one of the best. Frances performed from coast to coast, as well as with the Boston Symphony, Utah Symphony and Chicago Symphony.
Herb Champ said his mother never got enough recognition for her talents.
“I’m glad to see the recognition for her, that’s great,” he said. “Dad had a lot of recognition over the years.”
The carillon bells, heard every quarter hour from the bell tower in Old Main, were gifted in 1978, by the Champ family, in honor of Frances Champ.
Caine College of the Arts Dean Craig Jessop thanked the Champ family, seated in the front row at the reception, for Frances Champs contributions to Cache Valley’s musical legacy. He said the success of the newly formed arts college is due in part to her determination and hard work.
“Arts education is what speaks to the human soul,” Jessop said. “In times of celebration, in times of grief, most often where we turn to first is the arts to bring us comfort — to bring us guidance, to bring us joy. And we’re honored to celebrate the joy of this great woman, and the legacy that she brought to Utah State University.”
-la.stewart@aggiemail.usu.edu