Distractions nothing new for pianist

There are certain advantages to learning to play the piano in a large family. One of them is learning to play with distractions.

Stephen Beus, a competitor in this year's Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and one of eight children, got his start on the family piano with his siblings nearby. "There was a plastic basketball hoop placed unfortunately near the piano. When my brothers would try for a tough shot — you know, off the floor, off the wall, nothing but net — the ball invariably hit either myself or the keyboard.

"Although I'm certainly not immune to distractions during performances, I think I'm better off than had I not had this kind of training."

The son of a Brigham Young University-trained pianist, Beus said that he used to listen as his mother gave piano lessons to other kids, then later imitate what he had heard. "It wasn't anything particularly prodigious — I wasn't playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto after a single hearing or anything like that. I was just interested in what I heard and interested in what sounds I could find on the instrument."

He eventually got lessons of his own. The rest of his seven siblings took lessons as well, but Beus said he was the only one who loved it and stuck with it.

When he was 11, Beus came from his home in Othello, Wash., to compete in the Junior division of the Bachauer (he placed fifth). That year, the Young Artists division of the Bachauer competition was held at the same time.

"Growing up in a rural environment, my exposure to great piano-playing was very limited," Beus said. "I never heard people my age play the things I was playing. I remember particularly sitting and listening to the older division of competitors playing. There was an Asian man, whose name I don't remember, who played Liszt's 'La Campanella.' I had never heard this piece before, and I had never heard such commanding playing before. I was riveted.

"After the competition I told my teacher back at home that I had to learn the 'Campanella.' And as an 11-year-old I learned it after a fashion. This piece, if you don't know it, is terribly difficult with lots of treacherous leaps, repeated notes and trills. But I struggled through it and played it badly more often than not.

"After three years of practice I played 'Campanella' at the 1996 Bachauer finals. The jury liked it well enough to give me first prize, but I still wonder if I'm getting it right. It remains one of my favorite pieces, and I play it often as an encore."

Beus added that he felt it is unfortunate that he won't be able to include "La Campanella" in his program for this year's Bachauer competition.