Frances Renzi brings music to life

By MARY MATTINGLY

Updated: March 20, 2013, 7:08 PM

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Noted by critics for her ability to make music come alive, pianist Frances Renzi will be sharing her talent at Grand Valley State University.

Free to the public, the recital will take place this Sunday in the Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall, and will be followed by a master class on Monday, during which she will guide several students toward improving their playing.

“I’ve worked with some of these (GVSU) students before, and it will be a pleasure to work with them again,” Renzi said. “(Grand Valley has) a wonderful music department.”

An accomplished soloist, Renzi has appeared with several orchestras in the U.S. and performed internationally. A graduate of the University of North Texas, she received her master’s degree from Julliard. She is currently a professor emerita at the University of Toledo.

This is not the first time Renzi has been invited to perform at GVSU, and was a former professor for Helen Marlais, associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy at GVSU.

Marlais studied with Renzi while earning her bachelor’s degree, and they’ve worked on several collaborations together.

“I believe it is important to stay in touch with the teachers who have made a difference in one’s life,” Marlais said. “We stay in touch as often as possible.”

Both the recital and master class are sponsored by the department of political science in honor of William Baum, a late GVSU professor who loved classical music.

“The group (that) invites a pianist each year always asks the chair of the music department who they should bring in,” Marlais said. “This year we thought of Frances Renzi.”

Sunday’s concert is a solo piano recital, and features the music of Mozart, Debussy and Chopin.

“This is a program of music I feel a strong affinity and connection to,” Renzi said. “When you give a recital, it is mainly to share your love of the music. Hopefully the audience has the same feeling.”

Like Renzi’s recital, the master class is also free and open to the public in the Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall. The two-hour class begins at 11 a.m. and will feature four GVSU students. It is also a chance for them to be critiqued by, and work with a teacher that is not their own to benefit from a different, pedagogical perspective.

“You can’t get into detail, (the student has) a half hour,” Renzi said. “Because you are not familiar with (the student) like you would be if you gave them weekly lessons, you focus on anything you may have noticed during their performance. Just a few things that would be helpful for the future.”

Dutcher Snedeker, a sophomore piano performance major, will be playing in the master class. He will play one movement from Alberto Ginastera’ Sonata Opus 22, No. 1: Movement 4 Rubido ed ostinato.

“This is the first time I will be playing for (Renzi),” Snedeker said. “I hope to make a good impression.”

His performance in the master class is in preparation for the Student Recital Hour, a weekly student recital series, and for his Jury.

“The movement is very loud and rhythmic, really in your face,” Snedeker said. “I hope (Renzi) gives me insight into how to play it standing alone.”

While Snedeker is working with Renzi for the first time, other students have had previous opportunities to work with her. Audra Erb, a senior piano performance major, remembers when Marlais was absent for two weeks and Renzi gave lessons in her place.

“(Renzi) is extremely tone-oriented,” Erb said. “The piano is a percussive instrument. After you strike a note, the tone immediately starts to die. The next note that you shape has to be equal to that death.”

Along with GVSU, Renzi will also be giving the program at other schools, with her next performance at the University of Toledo as a part of the Dorothy Price Piano Series.

“She brings music to life,” Snedeker said. “It will be interesting to see firsthand how she treats her pieces.”

mmattingly@lanthorn.com

Published March 20, 2013 A&E