Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509080050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SUSAN BOXLER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
But ask her about playing the piano, and her conversation is as melodious as the music she interprets.
"I try to focus on my music, not on each note per se, but what I am trying to tell my audience," says Schumann, who will debut with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra at a pops concert on Saturday. "I want to tell a story, to convey a feeling, a part of me that I don't show to everyone, only those close to me.
Schumann has been playing piano since she was 41/2. That was when she asked her mother, Linda, to teach her how to play the family's secondhand piano. Linda wasn't sure how to teach such a young child, and Jeanne's father, Chuck, thought 7 was a more appropriate age to begin lessons.
But at the same time, Linda Schumann was tutoring a Taiwanese child in English, rewarding her student after each language lesson with a lesson on the piano. When Jeanne noticed her mother teaching someone else to play, she wouldn't be satisfied until her mother set up lessons for her, too.
Through a friend, Linda Schumann learned that Teresa Ehrlich, founder of the Renaissance Music Academy of Virginia, taught young students. She took her daughter for an interview, and Ehrlich has been Schumann's piano teacher ever since.
Watching his daughter play during a recital a year later, Chuck Schumann said he never should have discouraged the lessons.
Jeanne progressed. In the beginning, some of the practice was too easy for her, and her parents would hear strange versions of the pieces in progress. On investigating, they found Jeanne trying to challenge herself by closing her eyes or crossing her hands when she played.
At 6, Jeanne decided she wanted to be a concert pianist like Ehrlich. One day Ehrlich found Jeanne browsing through the books in her studio and asked her what she was looking for. Jeanne replied, "I just wanted to see what books I need to be like you when I grow up."
Now, Jeanne says one of her heroes is Shannon Miller, a 13-year-old Olympic gymnast. She says she respects her winning attitude and concentration.
Jeanne also is an athlete - she runs in her spare time. "Running helps me get the frustration out," she says. "Sometimes I work through a piece of music. Also, it seems that I run in tempo with the piece I am working on."
Jeanne has competed internationally since she was 7 years old - when she tried out for her first piano competition, the Bartok-Kabelevsky Competition at Radford University. She has placed second for the last two years at this competition, and she placed second this year in the Bland Competition in Reston, where she won a $1,000 scholarship.
At 10, she competed in the Steinway Mid-Atlantic Competition and earned an honorable mention. And at 11, she entered the Stravinksy Competition held that year at the University of Illinois in Champagne-Urbana.
There, she met serious young pianists from all over the world - Russia, Australia, England, Taiwan. The Schumanns stayed with friends near the university during the competition. Twice, they packed to go home, thinking Jeanne didn't have a chance to continue. Twice, they unpacked when they learned the results. Ultimately, Jeanne won fifth place for her 11-13 age range.
This year, she went to a camp at Indiana University for pianists her age. Most importantly, she met young pianists as passionately dedicated as she was and, for once, felt connected to other artists. "When I play, I know there are other kids out there playing, too, and that helps me with my work," she says. This year, Jeanne was one of the six students out of 48 selected to play at an honors recital at the end of camp.
Jeanne now practices four hours a day and even more before competitions. Her mother worries sometimes that she practices too much and doesn't get enough sleep.
Still, she makes high grades at school and is a member of the symphonic band.
The Romantic era is Jeanne's favorite period of music: Chopin, Mendelssohn.
"I am trying to like baroque," she says, referring to the period in classical music characterized by highly embellished melodies and fugal or contrapuntal forms.
Her mother says Jeanne puts her whole heart and soul into music that is intense and passionate.
"Jeanne is intense," she says. "Romantic music is her way to show that part of herself."
As the featured soloist at "Evening at the Pops," Jeanne will play Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No.1, Opus 25, a virtuoso piece that is technically demanding.
"Jeanne's response to music is first emotional," Ehrlich says. "She has a tremendous amount of charisma and communicates a great deal to the audience. It is a gift. You feel an energy as she plays."
In concert: The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in a pops concert at Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center. The event will feature specialities and desserts from Blacksburg restaurants. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and dinner service will begin at 6. The concert starts at 6:45. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.
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