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Northcoast Life Piano concert today
Piano concert today
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60th season opens with Lithuanian immigrant “Since I left the Soviet Union,” said pianist Rudolf Budginas in a recent interview, “I have all the freedom I want, and I like to ‘push the envelope.’” In his concerts, his goal is to “break the wall between the artist onstage and the audience.” “I make it very casual and personal, like in a living room,” he said. Another approach he uses for a part of the concert is to play some ‘crossover’ classical pieces “wrapped in different genres, mixed in with some spangle, blues, world or Latin,” he said. “I’m gonna shock everybody!” Budginas (pronounced bud-guinness) will perform beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday for the Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association’s first performance of its 60th season. Born in Lithuania, part of the Soviet Union near the Baltic Sea and Poland, he arrived into a family of musicians, which included his grandfather, his parents, his uncle and aunts. His sister is a concert violinist. “So,” he laughed, “we really didn’t have a choice about what we were going to be.” “My father dreamed of being a pianist,” said Budginas, “but he was sent to Siberia by Stalin, and they didn’t have pianos there.” Instead, his father learned to play the accordion, in different styles. “My mom was a choir director and pianist,” he continued, “I got the classical part from her.” At the early age of four, he was sent away to a boarding school for gifted children. “We worked from morning until night, but also did some naughty things,” he said. “It was the best training an artist could have in that environment.” “During that time in the Soviet Union,” he explained, “everything was very controlled. The one thing artists could do that was really respected and received the best training was music. It was a way to say something personal without being literal.” After debuting with the Lithuanian National Symphony at age nine, and spending some time studying at the Moscow Conservatory, Budginas applied for further training at the University of Southern California, where he eventually earned a doctorate. Based on some audition cassette tapes sent with his application, he received a full scholarship, something very hard to get. When he first arrived in Los Angeles in 1994, it was very different from what he expected. “I imagined everybody smiling and happy and waiting for me with open arms,” he said. He was not prepared for the sheer numbers of busy people. “Instead, I felt so small — it was like a cold shower,” he admitted. “Right away, I knew I needed to do something [significant].” So he entered the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. “I had eighty dollars in my account, and the entry fee was $75. There was only one [monetary] award, first place (though they gave a second and third place) and I won it!” In addition to money in the bank, that award brought him recordings, contracts and concerts. Besides touring — he will be playing in Auburn, Calif., the night before arriving here, and Meford, Ore., the night after — he is also currently a music teacher at Cuesta College in the San Luis Obispo area, where he resides. He also continues to surf, something that he took up while in southern California. “It’s my most important release,” he said, “and my chance to connect with nature. It cleans my brain.” Among others composers, Budginas will play a Liszt piece in his Crescent City appearance. “Liszt is extravagant, flamboyant and hard to play: the performer suffers,” he said. But the work he has chosen, “Hungarian Rhapsody,” is based on the music of the people, making it more accessible than others. The program also offers pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Joplin, Schubert, Bizet and Gershwin. Attendees should not “think about high philosophy,” recommended Budginas. “Just relax, enjoy and be entertained!” If you go:
WHAT: Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association piano concert with Rudolf Budginas |
