Each concert is a new
By Tim Ryan
experience for Irish pianist
Star-Bulletin
Beethoven's Emperor: Honolulu Symphony concert featuring pianist John O'Conor, 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Blaisdell Concert Hall. Tickets, $15-$47.50, available by calling 538-8863 or Connection outlets -- 545-4000Irish pianist John O'Conor is sitting in his Halekulani suite gazing at Diamond Head, apologizing to a reporter for bringing Irish weather to Hawaii.
"It does make me feel like I'm home except, when it rains here it's 80 degrees," said O'Conor, performing for the first time Sunday and Tuesday with the Honolulu Symphony.
Acclaimed for his eloquent phrasing, technique and keyboard mastery -- especially in the classical and early romantic repertoires -- O'Conor, 50, is away from his Dublin home six months a year. But the traveling, he says, not only is necessary to earn a living but to keep his skills sharp.
"Every performance is different; every audience is different; that's really true," O'Conor said. "The experience for me is always new even though I may have played that same piece hundreds of times. I learn something new every time I'm out there; something new about the music; something new about myself; maybe something new about the audience."
O'Conor's specialty is Beethoven. He has undertaken a series of ambitious recording projects, including the complete Beethoven sonatas, Mozart piano concertos, and the major works of Irish composer John Field.
"To be a great musician, it's so important to know all you can about the person who wrote it," he said. "You need to understand why the composer writes the music; what were his feelings behind it.
"You don't play the piano just by sitting down and hitting the keys like a typewriter. In a sense, you transform a part of yourself into the composer's mind."
O'Conor, the youngest of four children, started playing the piano at age 3, mainly to get a share of the attention being doled out to his piano-playing sisters, Carmel and Joan, who are music teachers.
"Maybe not for the best reasons right away, but I got hooked on playing rather quickly," he said.
By age 17, O'Conor won the first of three Feis Ceoil music medals.
In 1973 he was awarded first place in the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna and later won first place at the Bosendorfer Piano Competition. So it's not surprising that O'Conor says competitions are good for musicians.
" 'They're a showcase leading to concert engagements," he said. "We become musicians to play and competitions give newcomers an opportunity to play which they wouldn't otherwise get. And no two performances are ever the same -- that's what is so unique about music."
He adds, "I practice every day, even here in Hawaii. This Irish weather does put me in the mood."
New Maui resident finds
Star-Bulletin
inspiration in island living
Robert Pollock on Piano: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Atherton Performing Arts Studio, Hawaii Public Radio, 738 Kaheka St. Tickets $15, $12.50 for KHPR members, $10 for students. Call 955-8821Robert Pollock has had a real change in venue.
The pianist and composer, who was the artistic director of the Composers Guild of New Jersey, moved to Maui last year "simply to get closer to nature, to enjoy a healthier lifestyle."
The move has been good for him.
"It's very inspiring and I'm feeling very productive." Pollock said in an interview from Kula.
"I have a brother out here and when ever we visited we really enjoyed it. While touring in Japan and Russia I thought it would be great to establish a base closer to Asia, and so we took the opportunity to move to upcountry Maui."
Pollock will perform in Honolulu Saturday. His program includes a selection of 20th-century keyboard music, including his own composition "Bridgeforms," which received a prize from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music in 1972.
Other works include George Gershwin's "Three Preludes," Roger Sessions' "From My Diary" and works by Mazurek, Kalimoulin, Dziadek, Asaka, Satie and Babbitt. Pollock has published 72 compositions, performed more than 80 world premieres and has soloed in New York, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Russia, New Jersey and Maui.
He is interested in establishing a composers guild in Hawaii. "There are tremendous networking opportunities here on the Pacific Rim."
Pollock finds interpreting new works an enjoyable challenge.
"It's much more creative, I feel, than re-interpreting works you've head a million times before ... Music is certainly an international language and I'm looking forward to introducing new works from Asia."
