The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 56

Musical path was her own choice Cleveland Orchestra Where: Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls When: 8:30 tonight (Helene Grimaud plays Schumann Piano Concerto, Jahja Ling conducts); 8:30 p.m. Saturday (Leonard Slatkin conducts Bernstein, Barber and Gershwin) 7:30 p.m. Sunday (Slat-kin conducts Pictures at an Exhibition; with pianist Jeffrey Siegel) Cost: Information: (800) 686-1141 Akron pools 1-7 p.m. daily through Sept.

3, Perkins Woods, 899 Diagonal Road; Reservoir Park, 1735 Hillside Terrace. Children through 15, 1-4 p.m. weekdays. Age 16 and up, 5-7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Families, 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, weekends. Perkins Woods, 535-9010; Reservoir Park, 784-4978. Coder Point 10 a.m.-midnight today, Saturday, 10 a.m.-l0 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, daily through Sept.

3, Sandusky. $19.95 if 48 inches tall; shorter, seniors, children through 3, free. Starlight admission after 5 p.m.: $10.95. (419) 626-0830. Clay's Park 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

daily through Labor Day, Clay's Park, state Route 93, Canal Fulton. non-holiday weekdays, seniors, children through 2, free. 854-6691. Water ski shows, Saturday. Basketball tournaments Saturday, Sunday.

Swimming, picnicking, bicycle and skateboard ramps, sports competitions. Dover Lake Park Open 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m. daily, through Aug. 26, 1150 W.Highland Road, Sagamore Hills. beach only, children through 3, free.

650-3569. Seven water slides. Geauga Lake 1 1 a.m.-10 p.m. weekdays, 10a.m.-10p.m. weekends, through Labor Day, 1060 N.

Aurora Road, Aurora. seniors, children through 3, free. 562-7131. Coconut Cave Canal, volleyball. Lake Wapusun Daily through Oct.

14, 10787 Molter Road, Shreve. 496-2355. Six lakes. Outdoor sports activities. Metroparks swimming 9 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

daily, through Sept. 3, Huntington Beach, Wallace Lake, Hinckley Lake. Cleveland Metroparks, 351-6300. Picnic areas, concession stands, restrooms. Munroe Falls Metro Park Swimming 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

daily, through Sept. 3, South River Road. children 2-12, $1. 867-5511. Inflatables permitted on 13-acre lake.

Trails. Pioneer Waterland 10 a.m-dusk daily through Sept. 3, 10661 Kile Road, Montville, Geauga County. $6.95. 951-7227.

Athletic fields. Sea World 9 a.m. daily, through Sept. 9, state Route 43, Aurora. children, 3-11, $13.50.

(800) 637-4268. Killer whales, Shamu and Namu. Tamsln Park 9 a.m. -8 p.m. daily, 5000 Akron-Cleveland Road, Peninsula.

650-0579. Swimming, video games. Water Works Pool, Park p.m. daily through Sept. 3, 2025 Munroe Falls Cuyahoga Falls.

children through 13, Picnic area, water slides, trails. Whispering Hills 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily through October, state Route 514, Shreve. $2. (800) 992-2435, 567-2137.

Olympic pool, nature trails, tennis, bingo. Hills dinner-dance Saturday, with Terry Gardner Good Company. Rise is swift for pianist from France By Philippa Kiraly Special to the Beacon Journal Many whiz kids get where they are by having pushy parents behind them, but not Helene Grimaud, who appears with the Cleveland Orchestra tonight in the Schumann Piano Concerto. The 20-year-old pianist from Aix-en-Provence in the south of France has made her way to an international concert career despite a lack of musical interest or understanding on the part of her parents, both of whom are professors of Italian at the University of Aix. Grimaud was 9 when she asked for music lessons, because she wanted to do something besides schoolwork.

"I wanted the cello," she says in excellent English, "but it was easier to rent a piano, and a piano didn't scare my parents so much." After a year or so, they thought she had learned enough and should quit, but Grimaud's teacher took her to play for a renowned Chilean teacher, Pierre Barbizet, in nearby Marseilles, and he in turn convinced the Grimauds that their daughter was talented and should continue. At 12, Helene was accepted for study at the Conservatoire National Superieure in Paris, and she made her own living arrangements. "I had some summer friends I went to," she says, at least to start with, but she moved every six months or so, because this one had no piano, or that one had neighbors who objected to her practicing. She completed her regular schooling by mail, with special interest in Russian and German history and literature. A scant six years after she began the instrument, at 15, she reached the semifinals of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

On the strength of that, Denon Records invited her to make a record with them, allowing her to choose the works. Since then Grimaud's career has taken off, with international recital tours, two more recordings, and appearances with many of the world's great orchestras. Her performance tonight is her U.S. orchestral I'm contributing to anything," she says. Asked what else she would do, she says instantly, "I'd be a psychoanalyst." One of her mentors and role models is pianist Martha Argerich, and she has taken seriously Argerich's comments that because she did not study other things, playing the piano is now the only thing she can do.

Grimaud finds the travel frustrating, in terms of building friendships. "Meeting people only once or twice yearly leaves no time to improve a relationship," she says. "If you've only got a couple of hours, you have to spend the time re-establishing the friendship and it gets no chance to develop." Though she is a warm, outgoing young woman, she says her major hobby is reading, with a little tennis and swimming. Despite her ambivalence with the turn her life is taking, Grimaud is immensely professional. "I practice about four hours a day with the piano, and two or three without," she says.

Asked to elaborate, she says she taught herself to use sound fantasy, hearing musical colors and phrasing in her head (in the same way that athletes train mentally), a practice method that involves great concentration. "It's the best way to guarantee that you can do it on the piano," she says. Although Grimaud has been inspired by and learned from other musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz, Argerich and conductor Kurt Masur, she says they have not influenced her. "I learned from Masur to find my own way," she says, "and from Martha, not to control. It's so much easier to complicate things musically and she never does.

If you control, you lose a lot of poetry. Knowing the notes is nothing, but it's scary not to be too comfortable." Pianist Helene Grimaud debut. Grimaud is still amazed at the direction her life has taken. "I can't explain how it came," she says. "You never choose the career, just discover when it started playing at age 9 starts." She is still not sure she wants to be a concert pianist for her whole life.

Her career still seems dreamlike to her, and a bit claustrophobic. "I don't feel can't explain how it came. You never choose the career, just discover when it Helene Grimaud pianist August 3, 1990 D14 ENJOY! The Beacon Journal.