Sunday, Mar. 01, 2009

Portrait of an Artist

Stephen Thomas/Pianist

Age: 41 Residence: Turlock

Daily job: Professor of music at California State University, Stanislaus, and coordinator of keyboard studies. I teach piano majors and piano-related courses, as well as music theory courses. I also review the Modesto Symphony Orchestra for The Modesto Bee.

Family: I am married to Susan Thomas. We have four children (three girls and a boy), who are ages 13 and under.

Background: I grew up in Provo, Utah, and started piano lessons at age 8. My mother likes to tell the story of how I spent Christmas Eve when I was 4 lying alone upstairs by the stereo listening to Beethoven's 3rd Symphony while everyone else was sitting around the fire eating cookies and being excited about Santa. Believe it or not, I was really inspired a lot by the Schroeder character in the Peanuts comic strip. I wanted to play Beethoven like he did. And so I did.

Arts experience: I have degrees in piano from Brigham Young University, Yale University and the University of Michigan. I have played concerts all over the world in places like Europe, Japan, Mexico and throughout the United States and Canada. I also teach a lot and feel very privileged to do so.

Advice for young performers/artists: While it's true to some extent that you have to have some talent and a bit of luck to succeed in the arts, I have observed that the really important opportunities come for those who work hard every single day with steady, consistent and focused effort. I have known many highly talented musicians who have had some good breaks but have failed anyway because they lacked discipline. Discipline is the key to success in any endeavor, and music study is a great way to develop this very transferrable skill.

Favorite music/art/performance: I love most of all to play chamber music with strings and to accompany singers in art song, even more than playing solo. For me, anything by the "three B's" (Bach, Beethoven and Brahms) is always a joy to play.

Life plans: I am very interested in continuing to develop the piano program at California State University, Stanislaus, with special emphasis in the expanding the pedagogy area of the piano curriculum. I would love to see a community music program that serves pre-college students eventually developed. We have already expanded the curriculum in the pedagogy recently (more information is on the Web at www.csustan.edu/music/Pages/PianoPerformanceHome.html).

How do you reach people unfamiliar with the arts? People are often intimidated by what they don't know much about, so it helps if they can get a little advice on where to begin. I like to encourage people to attend arts events that I think would be good to start with, or loan people my favorite CDs.

What would surprise people about your art? I think most people would be surprised to find out how many hours of practice go into playing a one-hour recital program; they would be surprised to find out how much effort goes into making music sound effortless. There's no question that in the arts, your greatest reward is working with the art form itself. Getting paid and making a living at it is all gravy.