Section: People
Piano prof to finesse keys across the seas
Oct 10, 2007

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 14^th 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.