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Among the many things I miss about my husband Jim, who died in 2014, is his piano playing. It was a constant in our lives, beginning with when we began dating and he stunned me by sitting at our old family piano and belting out a grandiose concerto.
Throughout our 47 years of marriage, I loved hearing him work on his latest piece. He used to say, “Doesn’t this drive you crazy?” as he played a passage over and over again. But it didn’t. I always loved it. When our granddaughter Camille was old enough to toddle, he began to perform happy little dance tunes that would set her awhirl.
Perhaps Jim’s greatest claim to piano fame is that he shared a teacher with Jon Nakamatsu, who is not only a world-renowned pianist but also is associated with the Bankhead Theater, even helping management choose the new Steinway. I was pleased to see that executive director Chris Carter included Nakamatsu in his series of “Beyond the Stage” interviews being posted at LivermoreArts.org.
In his interview, Jon tells the incredible story of how he was earning his living teaching German at St. Francis High School in Mountain View while traveling to piano competitions hoping to break into the rarefied world of concert pianists. He was 27 when he entered the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997 playing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. He won — and the rest is history, as he has performed ever since in esteemed venues throughout the world, including the Bankhead Theater.
Nakamatsu is unique in that he is the only Van Cliburn winner who was taught by a private piano teacher, Marina Derryberry, instead of being groomed at a prestigious music conservatory. Marina, who lived in Sunnyvale, also had two students who’ve enjoyed a lifetime of piano in their own homes — my husband and my son.
Marina was recommended to Jim by a music teacher at DeAnza College when we lived in Cupertino and he wanted to take lessons as an adult, which he did for a short time. When our son was 8, Marina agreed to teach him, too. She rarely took on children but already had one other young student about whom she raved — Jon.
We stayed in touch with Marina after we moved to the East Bay, and we would return to Sunnyvale for Jon’s public recitals. After he won the Van Cliburn in 1997, we attended his concert at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek where Marina was honored by the Music Teachers Association of California.
My son, who has lived in Berlin since 2000, contacted Jon when he performed there, and they enjoyed a long conversation over the phone. And Marina told us a story about Jon on one of his early appearances in Germany, when a man in the front row had a heart attack. Jon stopped the performance so the medical emergency could be handled, and the next morning he followed up with a call to the hospital.
And this is the man I saw in the Livermore Arts video — grounded in the real world — although I know from live performances and recordings that he soars with the angels when performing.
Nakamatsu returns to the Bankhead Theater to perform Feb. 8. Don’t be dissuaded from attending if you aren’t familiar with classical music.
“There’s something to be said for just coming to the concert hall and experiencing something in a different way in a different space and really enjoying it because you don’t know anything or have to know anything,” he says in the interview. “That’s kind of how I feel when I go to events of music that I don’t really understand.”
Reviews laud Jon for his charismatic performing style, so he is probably a good place to start enjoying the classics. Livermorearts.org also links to a brief clip of him winning the Van Cliburn competition.
Alas, I have no recordings of Jim playing his beloved Schubert or Brahms but I do have a few of him playing his original ditties while Camille dances and prances around the living room. For memories of his favorite classical pieces, I listen to Jon Nakamatsu recordings.
Editor’s note: Dolores Fox Ciardelli is Tri-Valley Life editor for the Pleasanton Weekly. Her column, “Valley Views,” appears on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.
