By Kristin Lehner
Arts Editor

Donald Berman graduated from Wesleyan in 1984 and went on to study with and serve as a teaching assistant to Leonard Shure at the New England Conservatory where he received a Masters with Distinction in 1988. He has been a featured piano soloist at concert series and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. Berman has recorded hundreds of contemporary works with Nuclassix, Collage, Real Art Ways, Alea III, Core Ensemble, and on his series, Pioneers and Premieres, recitals and lecture-demonstrations. These have included commissioned solo works and have featured first performances of his editions of unpublished works by Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles. His solo recordings The Unknown Ives and Arthur
Levering: School of Velocity feature work from these composers. Berman will be playing at Russell House on Sunday, March 4, 2001 at 3:00 p.m.

How did you become interested in music?

I started playing as a very young child– when I was four. There was music in the house and a piano in the corner. The first music I ever heard was musicals. My father played popular music on the piano. The important thing is that I did grow up with music of my time: rock music. I’ve been trying to play music of that sensibility my whole career.

Did you know that music would be such a big part of your life before attending Wesleyan?

I knew it would be a pig part of life, though the reason I attended Wesleyan was so that I did not have to commit to a conservatory education. I didn’t know I wanted to be a concert
pianist until my sophomore year. Wesleyan gave me a chance to explore and not define myself in the traditional concert pianist mode right away.

Whom did you study piano with at Wesleyan?

I studied with George Barth who now teaches at Stanford, and in my senior I became a student of John Kirkpatrick. I went to New Haven for my lessons. I stayed in Middletown for two years after graduation and drove to New Haven for a six-hour lesson once a week. I learned a tremendous amount from George Barth and the entire music department at the time. There was information and inspiration there that has lasted the entire time for me. In fact, I just gave at concert at Middlebury and on Tuesday I taught a class. I talked about music in a way that related a lot to the type of music I did at Wesleyan-— particularly related to the Western classical music I was performing. For instance there were a couple of pieces by Kodaly, and to
get people to hear it I played examples of Hungarian Cimbalom music [so that] my listeners could have an interesting ethnic point of reference. I also played piano etudes of Ligeti and I explained it in terms of South Indian music rhythms. 

Hey, that’s from the class "Worlds of Music," isn’t it?

Yes. And I am very grateful to the Wesleyan music department and still have colleagues from Wes in Boston and elsewhere.

Have you performed at Wesleyan since graduating?

I have. I don’t remember the exact year. I played on the Crowell Concert Series as a soloist around 1991. I played with a new music group Dinosaur Annex; we preformed on the Concert
Series, I think it was March of 1998.

What was it like coming back to Wesleyan to perform?

It was very familiar in a lot of ways-— just the smell of the practice rooms and the halls was very nostalgic. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all over. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long
to me! 

What has shaped the current direction of your musical career the most?

There were many influences that gave me an inner voice that kept telling me to innovate and discover new things. And certainly there’s a Wesleyan philosophy behind that. When I was at Wesleyan I was introduced to a lot of contemporary and avant-garde music that I have been playing ever since. It probably had an influence on my move to Boston in 1986. I was ready to go to a conservatory at that point. From that point on everything proceeds from one minor success to another that just keeps you going from one project to the next. Also my interest in the music of Charles Ives has had a huge influence on my career.

What projects or jobs are you currently working on?

This year I’ve done a great range of work from Mozart symphonies with the Columbus Symphony to programs of contemporary American music. Two recording are being produced. One
is music of an American composer from the twentieth century. I’ve been discovering music largely forgotten and out of print and bringing it to life. Secondly, I’ve started music on a follow up CD to the Charles Ives CD that will include unpublished work by Carl Ruggles. I’m also going to Turkey to give a concert on American Music in June. I’m looking forward to that trip.

What pieces will you be performing on Sunday?

I’m doing a program of music from four distinct epochs roughly 75 years apart. I’m doing a sonata by Haydn in A flat major, pieces by two Hungarian composers-— Zoltin Kodaly and Gyorgy Ligeti, a recent piece by Tamar Diefendruck called "Sound Reasoning in the Tower of Babel." And the second half I’ll be playing a sonata by Schubert in D major-— one of his  greatest and largest works for the piano.

What type of music do you normally perform?

I normally perform programs like this and programs of all contemporary works, many pieces that have been written for me to premier.

Thank you. I’ll see you on Sunday.

Thank you.