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Top of the Liszt Brent Watkins of SOU will head to piano competition in Holland with the keys to playing works of genius By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Brent Watkins, a rising star in the Rogue Valley, will head for Holland next month to compete against 50 pianists who have mastered the genius works of Franz Liszt. The Southern Oregon University student was chosen for the sixth International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, Holland, that runs March 31 to April 13. Watkins memorized 300 pages of music - 13 pieces in all - from the 31/2-minute "Gnomenreigen" (dance of the gnomes) to the 30-minute "Sonata in B Minor." He will perform before judges and Dutch audiences, some of whom will pay $39 for concert tickets. The first-place winner gets $13,066 in cash, a CD recording on the noted Naxos classical label and a 10-nation tour. "Liszt requires fine technique, fine musicianship and a lot of brain," said Alexander Tutunov, Watkins' tutor and SOU's music department chairman. One hour of playing Liszt is harder than four hours of scrubbing laundry by hand, Watkins said. The works are extremely difficult to master, yet guaranteed to please crowds. Tutunov describes Liszt as the Liberace of the 19th century, a showman who was loved by audiences, but criticized by contemporaries because they couldn't believe someone could compose and play such amazing music. "All of his pieces are top-level and require the finest pianists to play them," Tutunov said. Watkins ranks among the finest. Rogue Valley residents can hear his enchanting interpretation of Liszt during a fund-raising concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday, at the SOU Recital Hall. "It's a trial run for the competition," the 20-year-old Medford resident said. "It's an opportunity for me to play these pieces before an audience and an opportunity for the public to hear what I'll be playing in Holland." The young virtuoso won first prize in the Missoula International Concerto Competition in Montana and last month played concerts with the Missoula Symphony. Watkins took top honors at the Russian-American Music Association International Music Competition last year, followed by a piano recital tour of Russia and the United States, including a stop at Carnegie Hall in New York. "It would be a big deal if he wins (the Liszt competition) but it's not the end of the world if he doesn't," his professor said. "He can take good news or bad news equally well - he's strong psychologically." His strength may lie in his youth, too. "I have to take advantage of my youth while I've got it," said Watkins, who was home-taught by his mother, Karen Sporer, but played football at South Medford High School. His father, Jeff Watkins, is a jazz pianist who has toured Europe. "Right now, I'm able to do a lot more as far as practicing and the difficulty of the pieces than I will 30 years from now," Watkins said. "I want to get the most out of myself while I'm still young." If he wins, Watkins might use the prize money for graduate school. He wants to pursue a career in performance and teaching. But for now, he will maintain his hectic schedule of traveling to competitions, studying for technical music classes at SOU, playing restaurant and wedding gigs to earn tuition money and leading music at his church. "That's among my top priorities and something I wouldn't compromise," said Watkins, who serves as an intern leader at Bear Creek Church. "It's my joy to give what gifts I have to the Lord and use them in whatever way I can." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.