By Jennifer Becknell
The Herald
The Herald Performer and piano teacher Ann Herlong spends five to six hours a day practicing her competitive program, which includes Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Debussy, on her mother’s Baldwin grand piano.When Ann Herlong placed third in a prestigious international piano competition three years ago, it was a highlight of her lifetime love of music.
Next week, she has yet another chance.
The popular local performer and beloved piano teacher leaves this weekend for her third trip to the Van Cliburn Foundation’s International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. At 77, she will be the oldest of 75 pianists to compete in the Fort Worth, Texas, event.
“I’m just striving to do the best I can,” said Herlong, who spends five to six hours every day practicing her program, which includes a difficult selection of classical arrangements — Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Debussy.
“It’s a heavy program, and it has taken sacrifices,” she said.
She first attended the competition in 2002; the contestants are selected after submitting taped recordings of their playing. She competed again in 2005, when she was one of six who advanced to the finals; she placed third.
“Just because it’s an amateur competition doesn’t mean the playing is on an amateur level,” said Matthew Manwarren, a Winthrop University piano professor who has been Herlong’s coach. “Many of these people who compete are professionally trained pianists.”
Just getting chosen to compete is an accomplishment, he said. “To make it to that level among some pretty powerful players is an outstanding achievement,” he said.
Cliburn attained world fame as a classical pianist when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, at the height of the Cold War. The nonprofit foundation that was established in his name sponsors competitions and concerts and offers educational programs.
The event attracts doctors, lawyers and other prominent professionals from all over the world who play the piano. Herlong finds it a thrill “to be with these people who have the same passion for music, for piano playing.”
Herlong will be the second pianist to perform in the preliminary round on Monday. Twenty-five pianists will be chosen for the semifinals later in the week, and six will be chosen for the finals on June 3. Three winners are named.
Her daughter, Sally Herlong, said her mother is playing better now than she ever has, perhaps in part because of her success at the 2005 competition.
“I think she believes in herself more, because of having gone to this Van Cliburn competition and done well,” she said. “It’s like it’s given her the confidence that she can do it.”
Ann Herlong learned to play from her mother, the late Anna Kate Ratterree, a dedicated performer and teacher whose inspiration has been a driving force in Herlong’s music. She still plays and teaches at her mother’s Baldwin grand piano.
In 1951, when Herlong was a piano performance student at Converse College, her mother was ill with cancer. But Ratterree came to her daughter’s senior recital in an ambulance and listened from a stretcher in the aisle. She died two weeks later.
Herlong said she still thinks of her mother when she plays. “I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for my mother,” she said.
Performer and piano teacher Ann Herlong spends five to six hours a day practicing her competitive program, which includes Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Debussy, on her mother’s Baldwin grand piano. Photo: Melissa Cherry/The Herald
During her time at Converse, Herlong and her mother both studied piano for a summer at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
After she graduated, she returned to Rock Hill and married Doug Herlong. Her music took a back seat while the couple raised their five children. Ten years ago, he died.
Over the years, Herlong has maintained her piano performance skills, offering well-attended recitals at Winthrop. And she plans several dry runs of her Van Cliburn program, playing at Winthrop’s Byrnes Auditorium for friends to help her prepare.
“Very few people have pursued piano study at the level she has,” said Manwarren, who plans to attend the competition. “She has totally dedicated herself to the art of piano playing throughout her life.”
