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| Assistant Professor of Music Tamara Goldstein will travel to Japan to perform, lecture and serve as a cultural ambassador for the Denver-Takayama Sister Cities. |
Ebony, ivory and a passport.
These are a few of Tamara Goldstein’s favorite things.
Goldstein, an assistant professor of music at Metro State, is
preparing to punch her ticket to Japan later this month as part of a
cultural exchange through music that has been years in the making.
No stranger to international music performance and learning,
Goldstein has performed in Korea and Taiwan with the Colorado
Children’s Chorale, had a musical residency in Singapore with a Boston
cellist, studied and performed in Israel and France, and most recently,
was a guest recitalist and workshop presenter at the 14th
annual Suzuki Method World Convention in Italy in April 2006. She also
participated in a sister city exchange between Lakewood, Colo. and
Chester, England about 10 years ago that had her teaming with a
violinist for a two-week concert tour.
The Japan trip is the result of a conversation she struck with Metro
State music student Kyoko Kawamoto two years ago while studying with
Goldstein (Kawamoto has since graduated in 2007). The two brainstormed
about offering master classes and performances in Kobe, Japan.
Employing time and a range of professional and personal connections to
pave the way, Goldstein and University of Colorado at Boulder Music
Professor Mutsumi Moteki will soon realize an array of opportunities on
a stage of international proportions.
“I’m looking forward to an inspiring and interesting opportunity to
meet musicians on the other side of the world to share ideas,” says
Goldstein. “…it’s a whole new place that I haven’t seen yet.”
The pair will leave Denver on Oct. 23 and head to Kobe—where
Kawamoto now lives—where they will offer a lecture recital for a large
group of music educators at Kobe Yamaha on Oct. 26. From Oct. 27-29 the
musicians will be cultural ambassadors for the Denver-Takayama Sister
Cities in Takayama, Japan. While in Takayama, Goldstein and Moteki will
also perform for local schoolchildren and at a cultural arts center.
Before heading home, they will return to Kobe to lecture and perform at
Kobe College on Oct. 31.
Goldstein says creating a cross-cultural musical dialogue while in
Japan is one of her many goals designed to inspire and advance Metro
State’s global reach.
“If I could start an academic exchange, that would be thrilling,” she says.
Another interesting aspect of the trip is a planned performance of
part of a piano duet written by two of Goldstein’s fellow Metro State
music professors. “Derivations of Handel’s ‘Ombra Mai Fu’” was written
by Assistant Professor of Music Cherise Leiter and music composition
and theory adjunct faculty Leanna Kirchoff and originally performed by
them at the 2005 Piano Celebration at Metro State that Goldstein
founded and directs.
Goldstein says she plans to bring extra copies of the piece to pass along to interested musicians in Japan.
“[The performance will] spread a little of Metro while we are in Japan,” adds Goldstein.
For more information about Goldstein and Moteki, please visit http://www.tamaragoldstein.com/ and www.colorado.edu/music/faculty/moteki.html.
