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 I’ve wanted to participate in the Flint School of Performing Arts Concerto Competition ever since my older sister Elizabeth won the competition in 2005. I remember being in seventh grade, sitting in the auditorium watching her play with the orchestra and thinking, “Wow, that looks like fun!”
Of course, as I learned when I began preparing my first concerto last summer, there’s quite a bit of hard work involved too.
After looking through several options in May 2009, my teacher and I decided I would learn the first movement of Camille Saint-Saens’ Fifth Concerto for piano and orchestra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._5_(Saint-Sa%C3%ABns). Pianist Lilya Zilberstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilya_Zilberstein had recently performed this work in its entirety with the Flint Symphony Orchestra, and we were both impressed by the haunting lyrical quality of the music, as well as by its fresh novelty – for some reason, this is a concerto with which very few Americans are familiar. (It was nicknamed the “Egyptian” concerto, partly because Saint-Saens wrote it while on vacation in Egypt and partly because of its exotic Middle-Eastern textures.)
I loved the piece at once, but found it a challenge to bring out the artistic flavor of the music while still doing justice to the technically difficult runs and trills. To perfect the piece, I made major changes to my practice schedule, working two hours a day on the music for much of the summer. (This was a big step up for me in terms of commitment.) Memorizing the movement was also challenging, because the solo pieces I had learned in the past only required me to know my part, but for this competition I had to know the orchestral interludes as well, so that I would be able to take my cues without referring to sheet music. My teacher, Ida Leshchinskaya, http://www.thefim.org/organ-piano-and-harpsichord-department was tireless in her help and encouragement, and really brought me up to where I am now.
I was very honored to receive first place in the Flint School of Performing Arts Concerto Competition on October 19th, 2009. I’m looking forward to playing Saint-Saens’ Fifth Concerto with the Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra on December 12th at 7 pm at Davison High School http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flint-Institute-of-Music/66709320132?v=app_2344061033#/event.php?eid=193779896682&index=1 I hope you’ll come and listen!
Forrest Brazeal is a home schooled high-school senior from Clarkston, MI. When not practicing the piano, he spends a great deal of his spare time in his basement sound studio, writing and recording music of his own. (You can check out some of his work at his website.) He plans to pursue sound engineering at an area college in the fall of 2010.
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