UAB to host pianists
by MICHAEL HUEBNER September 9, 2007
. . .
A Birmingham opththalmologist will headline the 2007-08 UAB Piano Series. Drew Mays, winner of the 2007 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, joins Roberto Plano and duo-pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton for the series.

Mays won the competition in June following a 15-year keyboard hiatus and second-place victory in the Rocky Mountain Amateur Piano Competition in 2006. Plano, a finalist at the regular (nonamateur) Van Cliburn competition in 2005, won first prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2001.

. . .

The series:

Nov. 11. Roberto Plano.

Jan. 27. Drew Mays.

March 30. Christina and Michelle Naughton.

Tickets to the entire series are $30. Single tickets are $15, $5 for UAB students, faculty and staff. Call 975-2787.

Birmingham News
Michael Huebner’s blog and column
June 14, 2007

First, let’s dispense with the qualifiers:

For an ophthalmologist, Drew Mays is an outstanding pianist. For an amateur, he’s … an outstanding pianist.

The best, in fact, according to two panels of judges at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, which he won June 3 in Fort Worth, Texas.

On Wednesday morning, the doctor performed glaucoma surgery in Birmingham, then saw patients until 3 p.m. Later that day, the pianist performed Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Ravel and Liszt in Tuscaloosa. Not a typical day for medical — or musical — personnel, but it revealed a heart and mind of extraordinary capacity.

Mays’ pianistic strengths lie in unexpected places. Whereas many competitive amateurs focus on technique, Mays has gone much further — honing his musical instincts to a high degree.

Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G major wasn’t techically perfect. Nor was the opening movement of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata. Coupled with the egregiously out-of-tune Steinway in Moody Concert Hall on the University of Alabama campus, the recital began less than auspiciously. But like many mature pianists, Mays rose above the fray, delivering moment after moment of exhilarating musicality and exquisite beauty. The tide turned for good in the “Waldstein” finale, its angelic melody wafting breathlessly above beautifully sculpted layers of scales and arpeggios. It ended with throbbing intensity, Mays’ musical vision fully realized.

He drove through Schumann’s “Toccata” in C major, a monstrous technical tour-de-force, with sheer fortitude. In Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau,” vivid swashes of color and light played out around a shining inner melody.

Whether or not Mays had a victory strategy in mind for the Cliburn competition, ending with Liszt’s “Mephisto Waltz” No. 1 was a brilliant move. With power and muscle on his side, Mays likely sealed the win with this piece. This was an appropriately delirious and devilish rendering, its thick textures delivered with authority and transparency. The audience jumped to its feet in appreciation. Mays responded by crediting Amanda Penick, his piano professor through two degrees at UA, for his early grounding and late successes.

Mays is slated to perform in Birmingham on Jan. 27, part of the UAB Piano Series.

mhuebner@bhamnews.com

WRR Classical 101.1 FM – Dallas / Fort Worth
(currently featured on WRR’s homepage, June 10, 2007)

Drew Mays, Ophthalmologist from Birmingham, Alabama, Wins First Prize in Van Cliburn Foundation’s Fifth International Piano competition for Outstanding Amateurs Mark Fuller of Arizona, Second Prize winner, Clark Griffith of Texas Third Prize winner. WRR wants to congratulate all the competitors! Hear an interview with Dr. Mays and Mark Fuller with Karen Moyer.

Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Birmingham News

Ophthalmologist Drew Mays will give an Alabama audience a chance to hear what made him a piano champion last week.

Wednesday at 6 p.m., Birmingham’s newest musical phenom, who took first prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs a week ago, will perform at Moody Concert Hall on the UA campus in Tuscaloosa. He will play some of the music that won over judges and audiences in Fort Worth Texas, which included Schumann, Bach, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Liszt.

Mays topped 74 other contestants in what is widely considered the most prestigious competition of its kind. Contestants 35 and older, whose day jobs were something other than piano playing, were invited from 23 states and 6 foreign countries. Mays also took the Audience Award and Best Performance of a Romantic Era work.

A former and present student of UA faculty pianist Amanda Penick, Mays earned bachelors and masters degrees in music at UA and studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Hanover Conservatory of Music in Germany before shifting his career to medicine. He oversees the residency program in ophthalmology at UAB and has a private practice in Vestavia Hills.

The concert is free and open to the public.

by Richard Nilsen
The Arizona Republic
June 10, 2007

Phoenix lawyer Mark Fuller knows how to appeal to a jury.

Last week, the jury he won over presided at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Amateurs. He placed second among 75 pianists from all over the world in the prestigious competition held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas, on off years between the bigger Van Cliburn competition for younger career musicians.

First place went to Drew Mays, an ophthalmologist from Alabama. But Fuller not only placed second, he won the prize given by vote of the music critics covering the event and received the award for best performance of post-Romantic music.

For the contest, he won $1,500. For winning the critics, he got an extra $250. For the post-Romantic music, he won a cowboy hat. A really nice cowboy hat.

Competitors from 23 states and seven nations came to the weeklong contest, with three rounds of performances. Fuller played the Samuel Barber piano sonata and a group of etudes by Ned Rorem for his finals.

Fuller, 43, a partner with Gallagher and Kennedy, lives in Phoenix with his wife, Dawn, and three children.

Question: Why did you enter the competition this year? It’s your first.

Answer: I’ve been playing for a long time, and although I’m ambivalent about competing, I went through a difficult illness a few years ago – Hodgkin’s disease and a bone-marrow transplant – and I thought I’d better not keep putting things off. Do it now.

Q: And you play rather difficult selections, real knuckle busters.

A: The Barber is core repertoire for me. I play Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland sonatas, that’s my strength – 20th century music. When I was a teenager, what I listened to was (Olivier) Messaien – Peter Serkin playing the Vingt Regards.

Q: Do you like showing off?

A: I do like the virtuoso element, of it, but not when it’s empty. I’m not interested in the virtuoso element just for that. I’m not much of a showman. The other thing is that when you are playing for a jury of four former Van Cliburn winners, you can’t dazzle them. They can do it all themselves, they’ve heard it time and time again. I didn’t try to compete on that level. Try as I might, I can’t seem to get myself to play fluff.

Q: Did you ever consider going pro? Maybe play concerts and make a living through teaching?

A: I never really wanted to teach. I made that decision a long time ago. I’m not cut out to teach. I don’t have the patience for it.

Q: But you’re a lawyer. Doesn’t that require tons of patience?

A: Patience, yes, but I get paid so much more as a lawyer. (Laugh.)

Q: How does your law work compare with the piano?

A: There is a connection. As a lawyer, there is an aspect of putting disparate pieces together and trying to convince people of the results. That’s law – to take something and put it together in a way that makes sense. My job always involves an audience, whether a judge or a jury. Make my case compelling. And in large part, that’s what you’re trying to do playing piano, too.

Q: You practice law and you practice piano. How much?

A: I practice more than my family probably wants. It’s completely variable, but there aren’t many days when I don’t practice. Maybe two to three hours, or on weekends, maybe five or six. If I’m incredibly busy, I will still try to put in 10 or 15 minutes on some technical stuff. It’s vastly better to spend 10 minutes than to spend none.

Q: The competition is for amateur pianists, but you made a recording with your teacher – ASU’s Robert Hamilton – of the music of composer Rodney Rogers. Doesn’t that disqualify you?

A: The record not only didn’t earn money, but I got parking tickets at ASU while making the recording, so I lost money on the deal.

Q: It must have been satisfying to do, though.

A: I came out of a deposition one day and got in my car and turned on KBAQ and heard the CD. “God, that’s familiar,” and it’s me - it’s so bizarre. It was KBAQ CD of the Week or something.

Q: Are you going to celebrate?

A: I haven’t gotten much sleep for the past couple of nights, but we’ll pop open a bottle of champagne, I guess. I’ll miss it: getting ready to go out onstage, the last time to play an instrument this good, for an audience this good, in a hall this good. If you’re interested in playing piano, that’s heaven. It doesn’t get any better than that.

San Francisco Chronicle
by Leah Garchik
June 8, 2007

Investment analyst Ken Iisaka of Mill Valley was one of six finalists in the recent Van Cliburn International Amateur Piano competition in Fort Worth, Texas. There were 75 competitors, so getting so far was a major achievement.

Just a few days before he left, he accomplished another feat. Iisaka was in the audience for a Santa Rosa Concerts Grand concert that was to feature Cuban pianist Antonio Iturrioz. But leaving his house, Iturrioz took a bad fall and was forced to go to a hospital. The audience waited, but the pianist didn’t show up.

Producer Terry McNeill, who was acquainted with Iisaka, invited him to take the stage and fill in, which he did with distinction. The pianist got a standing ovation, telling the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, “It was the best rehearsal for the competition that I could imagine.”

Iisaka wasn’t the Bay Area’s only competitor. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “The award for Most Spunk goes to Esfir Ross of Oakland, Calif. The dental assistant thoroughly charmed her way through a transcription of Bellini’s Casta Diva, Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C Minor and Statius Muller’s Antillean Dances.”

Arizonans in piano competition
Arizona Star, June 8, 2007
by Cathalena E. Burch

A Phoenix lawyer finished second in the Van Cliburn Foundation’s Fifth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in Texas last weekend.

Tucsonan and retired court reporter Michael Moore made the semifinals but did not advance to the final competitions on Sunday.

Alabama ophthalmologist Drew Mays took the $2,000 first prize, and Phoenix lawyer Mark Fuller came in second and snagged the Press Jury Award.

The weeklong competition held in Fort Worth, Texas, pitted 75 amateur pianists from around the world, including Brazil and Australia.

The Van Cliburn contest dates back to 1999 and was the first amateur piano contest in the United States, Van Cliburn officials said.

The contest had been held every other year until now. After this year’s contest, it will be held every four years.

The next competition will be in 2011.

Hear Van Cliburn Competition winner, Drew Mays, perform Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Hear Van Cliburn Competition finalist, Mark Fuller, perform the fourth movement from Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Piano, Op. 26.

Hear competition finalist, Slava Levin, perform Schumann’s Toccata, Op. 7

Hear highlights from Fred Child’s conversation with competition winner, Drew Mays.

Visit the Van Cliburn Foundation web site

Winner, Drew Mays (Image credit: Altre Media)

Finalists (Image credit: Altre Media)

by Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter

FORT WORTH, TX (2007-06-04) Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter:
The last time anything like this happened was 1989, when Cliburn Gold Medalists Vladimir Viardo, Jose Feghali, Stephen deGroote and Ralph Votapek played for a fundraiser. Van Cliburn Foundation president Richard Rodzinski remembers an obstacle in the way.
Richard Rodzinski, president Van Cliburn Foundation: We wrote the Ian Fleming estate to use the term Gold Fingers and got permission & we had a wonderful concert.

Zeeble: This time the 4 players included, again, Jose Feghali who won the Cliburn in 1985. Then there was 1997 winner Jon Nakamatsu, and co- medalists from 2001, Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch. They were all here judging the week long, 5th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, which ended yesterday. That’s when these 4 judges sat at two pianos to play music by Gounod, then Sousa. Four strong musical personalities negotiating parts, pace, & punch, can raise tensions, especially among perfectionists, according to Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Stanislav Ioudenitch, pianist: In the beginning we almost fight. But we never played together, 8 hands & different temperament, different sound. In the beginning kind of tension, but it was great, because we wanted to achieve some good results.

Zeeble: Eventually, they worked well together. Kern and Feghali gave their explanation of how they resolved differences.

Olga Kern, Jose Feghali, pianists: With 3 men and only one woman, it works well.
Feghali: Yes you do whatever the woman says. That’s the best way.
Seriously. See playing the piano together is one of the hardest forms of chamber music because the attack is so precise that if you’re off a split second, then it’s off.There’s always a time of adjustment.

Zeeble: Sunday’s performance was an audience surprise after the Amateur Competition. Initially, Jon Nakamatsu wasn’t sure late night rehearsals were a great idea after spending all day judging competitive playing.

Jon Nakamatsu, pianist: You think oh gosh, I have a rehearsal this evening, I can’t possibly do anything else. But once it gets going and you’re with people you like, it’s fun and is a release and that’s the best part of it all.

Zeeble: The other best part, was playing. Again Richard Rodzinski.

Rodzinski: Here we are listening to these wonderful gifts that the amateurs have to offer us. And Now it’s the judges who are saying thank you and here’s our gift back to you .

Zeeble: For KERA 90.1 I’m Bill Zeeble.
Email address – bzeeble@kera.org

© Copyright 2007, KERA
FORT WORTH, TX (2007-06-04) Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter:
The last time anything like this happened was 1989, when Cliburn Gold Medalists Vladimir Viardo, Jose Feghali, Stephen deGroote and Ralph Votapek played for a fundraiser. Van Cliburn Foundation president Richard Rodzinski remembers an obstacle in the way.

Richard Rodzinski, president Van Cliburn Foundation: We wrote the Ian Fleming estate to use the term Gold Fingers and got permission & we had a wonderful concert.

Zeeble: This time the 4 players included, again, Jose Feghali who won the Cliburn in 1985. Then there was 1997 winner Jon Nakamatsu, and co- medalists from 2001, Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch. They were all here judging the week long, 5th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, which ended yesterday. That’s when these 4 judges sat at two pianos to play music by Gounod, then Sousa. Four strong musical personalities negotiating parts, pace, & punch, can raise tensions, especially among perfectionists, according to Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Stanislav Ioudenitch, pianist: In the beginning we almost fight. But we never played together, 8 hands & different temperament, different sound. In the beginning kind of tension, but it was great, because we wanted to achieve some good results.

Zeeble: Eventually, they worked well together. Kern and Feghali gave their explanation of how they resolved differences.

Olga Kern, Jose Feghali, pianists: With 3 men and only one woman, it works well.
Feghali: Yes you do whatever the woman says. That’s the best way.
Seriously. See playing the piano together is one of the hardest forms of chamber music because the attack is so precise that if you’re off a split second, then it’s off.There’s always a time of adjustment.

Zeeble: Sunday’s performance was an audience surprise after the Amateur Competition. Initially, Jon Nakamatsu wasn’t sure late night rehearsals were a great idea after spending all day judging competitive playing.

Jon Nakamatsu, pianist: You think oh gosh, I have a rehearsal this evening, I can’t possibly do anything else. But once it gets going and you’re with people you like, it’s fun and is a release and that’s the best part of it all.

Zeeble: The other best part, was playing. Again Richard Rodzinski.

Rodzinski: Here we are listening to these wonderful gifts that the amateurs have to offer us. And Now it’s the judges who are saying thank you and here’s our gift back to you .

Zeeble: For KERA 90.1 I’m Bill Zeeble.
Email address – bzeeble@kera.org
© Copyright 2007, KERA

The Oregonian
David Stabler’s blog
June 4, 2007

FORT WORTH — Big, bold playing won out over a more cerebral style in the final round of the Cliburn Fifth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, Sunday. While the press jury chose the considered and organic playing of Arizona lawyer Mark Fuller, the regular jury went for a more charismatic pianist, Drew Mays, an opthamologist from Birmingham, Alabama.

Mays, who won $2,000 as well as the audience favorite award, had the personality of a performer: outgoing, animated, smiling. He played Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata and Liszt’s dashing “Mephisto Waltz” while Fuller chose Ned Rorem’s serene etudes and Samuel Barber’s knotty Sonata. Mays’ playing was nimble, but musically wayward at times. Fuller played like a Sphinx, hardly moving, and yet you could tell he was listening to himself very carefully. A fascinating contrast of players.

Third place went to Clark Griffith, a retired informational specialist who lives in Fort Worth.

Sunday’s finals brought the Man himself to the stage, Van Cliburn. At 73, he looked great — tall and thin as ever, and clearly delighted to be there. In remarks to the audience, he asked us all to be “soldiers of beauty.”

The jury sat onstage for the ceremony, which included a surprise performance by four jury members, Cliburn gold medalists, all — Olga Kern, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Jon Nakamatsu and Jose Feghali. On two pianos, they hammed up the Waltz from Gounod’s “Faust” and then the “Stars and Stripes Forever.” For the closing pages, all four stood up and continued playing, while the audience shrieked with laughter. I believe it’s the first time the Cliburn has had four winners perform together. They could sell out anywhere they wanted to perform.

Our day on the jury began with lunch at a luxurious home in an upscale neighborhood. As we nibbled on quiche and asparagus in a dining room tiled in blue Italian ceramics, we received voting instructions from Richard Rodzinski, Cliburn president. We were to give contestants a numerical rating from 1 (low) to 25. No discussion, no deliberations.

The system, adopted by the Cliburn Foundation in 2001, worked well. After hearing the six finalists, we sat around a conference table at Texas Christian University and marked our ballots, then silently handed them in, where they were entered into a software program. Within minutes, we knew the results. After that, we were free to discuss what we’d heard and the comments flew back and forth. A video company recorded the session.

After the awards ceremony, we were driven to a suburban country club for a buffet dinner of fried chicken and catfish. I talked with several of the 75 contestants — many stayed for the entire week — and heard some remarkable stories. Like the woman who carves out practice time every morning by not going to work or taking phone calls until 10 a.m. And the man who can only find time to practice late at night.

I also talked to Fuller, our press winner, and learned that when he was facing lymphoma a few years ago, he asked himself what pieces he’d most like to learn in his remaining time. Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata topped the list. Fuller is healthy, now, but he learned the difficult Carter sonata and almost played it here. He didn’t think the audience would go for it, so he played Barber instead, a wise choice, I think.

I must thank Tim Page, the Washington Post music critic, for letting me participate. Tim couldn’t get away, so I got to come instead and it was great fun to see the Cliburn up close, and to hang out with Olga Kern — who is as exuberant in person as she is onstage — and Jon Nakamatsu and others. The next amateur Cliburn is in 2011.