“Piano is definitely the most humbling thing in my life. You’re not always going to be winning,” says Gabriela Escalante, a junior at St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio. They’re wise words, but Escalante nevertheless impressed the panel at TPR’s annual Sounds Like KPAC competition last month, and won the Solo Musician category with her performance of Beethoven and Albéniz.
Read the interview below to learn more about this talented young performer and listen to the audio above for a special bonus, as Escalante explains her fingers aren’t just great on the keyboard... she’s an excellent worm picker, too.
Nathan Cone: How long have you been taking lessons? When did you first say, ‘mom, dad, I want to play music?’
Gabriela Escalante: Well Inma, my sister, had been playing before me. She’s two years older than I am. I officially asked my parents when I was four years old, to be like Inma and take piano lessons.
Were you competitive with her?
Not exactly, but I wanted that same sort of attention from the rest of the family at reunions, Irma would be the star of the show, and I kind of wanted that too! So it wasn’t so much competition, it’s just that I wanted to be up where she was. She was sort of a role model in that sense.
So how many years did it take before it clicked with you, and you said to yourself, ‘oh I really like playing,’ because for every kid—when they first start out—it’s difficult.
Yeah, and it was kind of a love-hate thing. You start out with obviously really easy pieces like “Penguin Waddle” and “Lion Rag.” It’s really important that it’s fun. For me it was a fun thing, but then it started to get more serious. I had to practice more hours, more times every day to get to the level that I wanted to be at. So I think probably after about five years in [at age 9] was when it really clicked that this is not just a fun little pastime, that it’s something that is a definite interest of mine.
At that point, what did you decide that your goal was going to be?
Around that time was when I entered in competitions. And in competitions, they usually have a set list of pieces that you can choose from. That was really helpful in helping me narrow my goal and see where I wanted to go. It was cool because my dad would play a lot of classical, KPAC, on the car radio. And that was another good way to get me to narrow my goal, because then I could listen to Beethoven pieces, all these different ranges of classical music. Listening to all these [performances] made me realize that I could be there someday, and I could be playing these big pieces. That was something that really helped me.
What are your favorite things to play?
I do play a lot of different varieties of classical music. My favorite is Beethoven, especially his later sonatas, when you get more into that Romantic feel that he’s getting into. I love Chopin, who is known for being very lyrical, and I love lyrical pieces where you can put all that emotion into it. I also like to play pop songs with my sister. We’ll play duets on the piano; we’ll sing together and harmonize with each other. There really is a range with me.
So you did play some Beethoven at our Sounds Like KPAC event, and one of them was the Sonata #27. Tell us about that music.
The piece is known as a battle between the heart and the hand. You can hear a lot of contrast in the music, between these very sad tragic moods, and these sorts of harsher, almost meaner, more stern sounds that you hear. And so that’s a contrast between the hammer, which is going to make the piano sound like a percussive instrument, and the heart, which is going to make it sound like a very lyrical instrument. [Generally] we don’t want the piano to sound like a percussion instrument; we try so hard for it not to. But this is one of Beethoven’s pieces where he wants to draw that contrast, wants the piano to sound like a percussive instrument in some areas. I love this piece. There are some difficult passages in it, but it’s been a challenge and a journey.
How did you feel after you played it at Sounds Like KPAC?
I felt good! The hard parts I managed to get down, and I hope I communicated something to the audience.
Tell us about the Albéniz piece you played, “Granada.”
Granada is a city in Spain. It’s very beautiful. I’ve never been there, but I looked it up on Google images and it’s very pretty! You hear in the right hand this whisper that almost sounds like water. The goal is for the right hand to sound very quiet while the left hand carries the melody. You also have this back and forth with the right hand. This was a piece that I listened to also on the radio in the car, and instantly fell in love with it. I’m very happy that I’m playing it now.
You’re a junior at St. Mary’s Hall… what do you hope to be doing as you graduate and go to college?
I want to pursue a medical career, so obviously that means in undergrad I’ll be doing pre-med. Ballet and piano are very important to me, and I want to continue those as I do go through my college career. In life, piano is going to be something that I do forever.
So how do you the arts factor into your other career plans? Do they build discipline…?
The arts are a major part of my life, and a major part of who I am. If it weren’t for the arts, I don’t think I’d have the discipline or the will to pursue a lot of the difficult things that I do in the arts, and in academics. Ballet and piano—especially piano—really teach you that if you want to accomplish something, you have to work at it. It can be nice to want to play a piece, but if you really, really want to play it, you need to spend those tough hours practicing at home, practicing with your mind. It’s very easy to play quickly through the piece and not think about it at all, but one thing that’s very important, especially if you have a limited amount of time, is to practice with a purpose. Do practice techniques. Play it slowly, play it quickly. Do whatever you need to do to get your mind thinking. That concept applies for ballet, applies for piano, everything across the board.
Lastly, what is the most surprising hobby you may have?
I'm a worm picker. Over the summer I was at the University of Chicago working in a research lab. It's actually very, very difficult to pick [worms] up and transfer them from one petri dish to another. You have a tool that is actually called a worm pick. It consists of a handle with a wire. You have to pick up a worm by flicking your wrist and drag it onto the agar. That's a feather in my cap! [laughs]
Hear Gabriela Escalante and all of our Sounds Like KPAC musical contestants on Performance Saturday this weekend, February 6, at 7 p.m. on KPAC 88.3 FM and KTXI 90.1 FM.
