|
Pianist
Speaks Volumes Through the Sounds of Her Keyboard From the time she first sat down to the
piano at age four, Teresa Walters has been drawn to its ivory and black
keys. Those keys have since unlocked the world of music to her
and opened doors across the globe. During the past few years, the works of Franz Liszt have been beckoning her, said Walters. "I think it's the natural selectivity as an artist, as you know what speaks to you most and what you can best communicate," she said of her immersion in his works. "Liszt has been the composer that speaks to me most clearly." "Near the end of his life, he took holy orders in the Catholic Church and his religious faith became the focus of his compositions," she said. "I like that about him, that he held on to the dreams of youth." "Although it was written in the idiom of the Catholic Church, (his sacred music) was meant to have a message for all people beyond the boundaries of denomination. He was ahead of his time that way, too," she said. The Washington Post described Walters as a "splendid musician whose marvelous technical prowess and rich expressive resources create music of intimate introspection, orchestral grandeur, and the most minute inflections of color." Walters has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Geneva Conservatoire, Wigmore Hall in London, the Great Hall of Moscow, Salle Cortot in Paris and the concert hall of Jerusalem. "It is important to me to play a variety of venues. These days a concert pianist needs to reach out to all kinds of diverse generations of people who live in different settings and economic circumstances," Walters said. "I gain something from every experience. No two locations are ever the same. I find it very enriching. It helps me grow." During the past few years, she has also begun giving a verbal presentation as part of her program. "Piano has, in a way, put the world at my doorstep," Walters said. "Even if I don't speak the language, music has a way of communicating beyond geographical boundaries and linguistic limitations."
|
"It was as if there was nothing else
calling to me. I always loved music," said the world-renowned
pianist in a phone interview.