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Spaulding junior to perform Schumann with the Philharmonic

Sarah Durham, a Spaulding High School junior and winner of the Borowicz competition, will perform as soloist in the first movement the Schumann Piano Concerto this weekend in Colchester and Barre. STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS

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Sarah Durham has been playing piano since she was a young child, but it was just another extra-curricular activity for the Spaulding High School junior. But, since she won this season's Vermont Philharmonic Borowicz Memorial Student Scholarship competition, that is changing.

"In the past year, it's definitely become a lot more important," Durham said. "It's also become more of a prospect for my future. I used to think I just enjoyed doing piano, but not doing it beyond school. Now I think I might definitely do something in my future."

As winner, Durham will perform the first movement of the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Philharmonic, conducted by Music Director Lou Kosma, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, and on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., at the Barre Opera House.

"Sarah's really vivacious and has a lot of spark," Kosma said. "She knows the piece really well and has been nurtured well as a pianist by her teacher. She has a lot of individuality to her playing."

In addition to the Schumann, Vermont's oldest community orchestra will be performing Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony and Smetana's "The Moldau," making it a program of popular masterpieces of the Romantic era.

"The orchestra has gotten to a point where we can delve into some challenging and familiar repertoire," Kosma said. "It's not that repertoire that's not familiar isn't challenging, but it's risky to play repertoire that everybody knows so well. They have played other repertoire really, really well and it's time to push the envelope."


Performing music of the Romantic era is just fine with Durham – it's her favorite music.

"Chopin's Fourth Ballade is my favorite piece right now, even though I haven't yet learned it," Durham said. "I like some Debussy, but mostly I find myself listening to Chopin's Ballades. I also like Beethoven, but I don't listen to Bach a lot."

Today's pop music isn't Durham's favorite.

"I listen to occasional songs, but not a lot," she said.

Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in a minor, Opus 54, is one of the most important pieces in the piano repertoire, a decidedly virtuoso work that is full of drama as well as sentimental feeling. The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo (fast, but not too fast), is the major part of the work, and the one which Durham beat out stiff competition from high schools throughout the state to win the annual competition named for the orchestra's founder, Jon Borowicz.

Durham was born in South Dakota to a music-loving family, and spent her early years in Idaho. She began first with Suzuki violin and then added piano.

"I decided it was too much, so I went with piano and I've been studying ever since," Durham said.

The Durhams moved to Barre when Sarah was 8. Already an intermediate student, she began studies with her current teacher, Richard Shadroui, a well-known Barre pianist and teacher.

Still, piano isn't everything for Durham.

"I like doing extra-academic things," she said. "I'm involved in drama too."

In fact, Durham had the starring role of Maria in Spaulding's production of "West Side Story" last fall. During the summers, Durham has been involved in a camp for children sponsored by her church and, this summer, plans to go to China with the Governor's Institutes. Still, she also hopes to attend the Adamant Music School, a piano school, this summer too.

"I'm not quite sure how much piano I want to do, whether to go to a conservatory or just keep it up informally," Durham said. "But I definitely want to continue with it."



Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op.64, from its dark beginning to its triumphal climax, is a challenging work for the Philharmonic.

"It's noble; it has touches of sentimentality; it grabs you; the tunes grab you – Tchaikovsky was a great tune-maker," Kosma said. "He really knew how to arch the symphony, to work straight through and build and with lots of excitement – but without a lot of percussion (there's only tympani). He does it strictly by beautiful sounds and getting to your heart."

For a long time, Kosma felt the massive work was too challenging for the orchestra, a part-time ensemble of talented amateurs and professionals.

"Six or more years ago they were not able to get through a work of this magnitude without it sounding tired halfway through," Kosma said. "I think there's a certain mental and physical stamina that has built up. This will be one of the challenges of this work, to keep your sight on the prize, to get to that end with as much energy and freshness as we can – from the beginning."

The players need that energy to tackle the symphony's many technical difficulties.

"It's exhilarating in one sense, but it's exhausting," Kosma said. "I think we're ready for works like this."

"The Moldau," one of six short tone poems in Bedrich Smetana's "Ma Vlast (My Fatherland)," is another popular work in the repertoire. Programmatic in nature, it describes springs that lead to a river, and their surroundings, on the way to Prague.

"They're playing the heck out of it," Kosma said. "If what has been happening in the rehearsals comes out, you will hear these two little streams turning out into a mighty river."