Festival pianists perform over weekend
In the darkness of Kent Concert Hall on Friday night, a spotlight was placed on Olga Kern and her piano.
The award-winning pianist sat in her black formal and allowed her whole body to be involved in her recital. She swayed back and forth, jerked during loud parts, and put emotion into every musical expression. Her pieces were long and each had several movements. She played a few familiar songs including one used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon and the “Flight of the Bumblebee.”
The audience applauded loudly between each piece and gave standing ovations to the 26-year-old musician.
Kern performed as part of the Wassermann Festival, which had been going on all week at Utah State University. The next night, pianist Misha Dichter provided a finale to the festival performing pieces from Beethoven and Schumann to Rachmaninoff and Chopin.
Crystal Shipley, a junior in chemistry, was impressed with Kern’s talent, her facial expressions, and musical composition.
“I love it,” she said. “The variations were amazing. I’ve never seen so many emotions come out of one piano.”
A senior in cellular and molecular biology, Edgar Lee, said he attends concerts every once in awhile and really enjoyed Kern.
“It’s like the piano is a monster and the way she attacks it is so cool,” he said.
He had heard about it and then looked her up on a Web site. He was most excited to hear her play Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, a piece she memorized by ear because there’s no music for it.
Memorization was impressive to Tosh Farr as well. A junior in mechanical engineering, Farr went to the concert for a date and he said it was amazing that she played without ever looking at sheet music.
Michelle Shook, a Logan resident attended Kern’s performance and was impressed as well.
She said, however, that Kern’s swaying and jumpy movements were at times distracting, even though she was very good. She said she also enjoyed Kern’s three encores.
Dichter’s audience on Saturday was instructed to stay quiet during his performances, as the music was recorded for future broadcast on Utah Public Radio. His visit to USU was provided through ICM Artists, Ltd. in New York City.
Kern is known for stage performance and was the first woman to receive the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal in more than 30 years.
Kern, winner of the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition at age 17, was born into a family of musicians and has been playing piano since she was 5.
She studied in both Moscow and Italy where she became a postgraduate student.
The pianist now lives in Moscow with her son.
Dichter was born in Shanghai and moved to the United States when he was 2. Four years later, he started piano lessons and is now in his fourth decade of an international career. He studied at the Julliard School of Music and has since taught there are well as at Yale, Harvard and the Amsterdam Conservatory, among others.
Dichter also performed Wednesday night with the Fry Street Quartet as part of the Festival.
-mnewbold@cc.usu.edu
-emilieholmes@cc.usu.edu