Posted on Sun, Jan. 20, 2008

Doubly unique

The UK Symphony Orchestra's annual concerto spotlights marimba and a mind-bending piano piece

By Rich Copley | Rcopley@herald-leader.com

But there is just one concerto competition concert, and this year's will feature one of the legendary piano works and a concerto for marimba and orchestra.

Marimba and orchestra?

The winning marimbist, David Sinclair, acknowledges that most of the people who come to the concert Friday night will have never heard a marimba concerto.

"It's a really tremendous work because it explores the whole range of possibilities with the instrument," Sinclair says. "You'll see me going up and down the instrument, going through the whole range as well as the range of techniques.

"It's very nice to listen to. It's tonal, it's approachable, but it's also fresh and new. I think people will be excited to hear it. It's energetic and fiery."

The concerto was commissioned from composer Eric Ewazen by marimba master She-e Wu, who wanted a piece she could travel around and play.

The concerto concert's winning pianist, Seunghee Lee, on the other hand, never has much trouble finding piano concertos to put under her fingers.

Lee, a native of South Korea, was drawn to Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. You might remember the 1996 movie Shine, in which Geoffrey Rush played pianist David Helfgott, who suffered a nervous breakdown trying to conquer Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.

Many pianists contended that Concerto No. 2 was more difficult.

But Lee doesn't sound like a woman on the edge from taking on Rachmaninoff's challenge.

"I love learning it and reading it," Lee says. "It's really a joy. It's a very dramatic piece."

She says that when she practices the work, she imagines the orchestra behind her, like she hears on her favorite recording of the concerto by Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin.

That is the big perk of winning the concerto competition: the rare chance for a college musician to play with the full force of a symphony orchestra behind him or her.

That's a treat that Sinclair and Lee have each had once before. Sinclair performed a concerto after winning a competition as an undergrad, and Lee won a competition in Italy.

Lee is starting work on a doctorate in piano at UK, and Sinclair will be wrapping up a master's degree this spring.

Sinclair enjoys getting into the spotlight with the piece, but he also likes being able to represent the award-winning UK percussion department, and percussion in general.

"I really thought it would be important for people to see a percussionist play a concerto with an orchestra," he says. "It was important, not just for my experience, but to push that literature.

"People are used to seeing piano concertos and violin concertos. People know what to expect when they hear a concerto from those instruments, to a degree. People are going to come hear a marimba concerto and be blown away by it, not because I'm playing it, but because it's a great piece of music and it's a great instrument."

And who knows, we might see one of these soloists again. Last semester, Seth Morris, a flutist and former concerto competition winner, returned from the New England Conservatory, where he's studying, for another solo gig with the UK Symphony.

Thinking about the concerto competition winner's concert, Nardolilo says, "We could program a whole season of them."

Twenty-five University of Kentucky student musicians auditioned at the UK Symphony Orchestra's annual concerto competition, and director John Nardolillo says any of them could play with the orchestra.