The top prizewinner of the 2000 Concert Artist Guild International Competition, Associate Professor of Music Anthony Padilla has enjoyed an enviable performance career that has taken him to concert stages around the world, including China, Israel, Germany, and Italy, among others. But these days, he finds more satisfaction in mentoring his students to pursue their own playing opportunities than he does his own.
“Solo performing can be exhausting,” says Padilla, who joined the conservatory of music faculty in 1997. “But for many students, it is new and exciting. I encourage my students to be out on the scene, getting their names out there. It promotes recruitment when audiences at national and international festivals and conferences see our students excel.”
Padilla’s encouragement has been duly rewarded. Three of his students earned first-place awards in 2006-07 competitions. One of his protégées, Amanda Gessler ’07, Harshaw, performed at the Aspen Music Festival, where she was one of eight pianists in the world selected to participate in the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation’s Beethoven program in Positano, Italy.
Always eager and willing to collaborate on interesting projects with conservatory colleagues, Padilla performed in nine recitals on-campus in the past year as well as seven others off-campus, among them the Mackinac Island Cultural Foundation’s annual music festival. He also is the co-founder of ARCOS, a chamber music trio. The group recently finished recording its first CD, a disc of chamber music by American women composers scheduled for release in January 2008.
Padilla, who has his choice of two pianos at home on which to practice — an Austrian Bösendorfer and a 20-year old German Bechstein with genuine ivory keys and immeasurable sentimental value — is currently working on a new program entitled “Notable Firsts,” which includes first published works by composers Brahms, Schumann, Alban, Berg, Karol Szymanowski, and Roy Harris in an effort to promote music that is not often performed.
Pictured here with Padilla are Alvina Tan ’06, Appleton, on violin; Alex Boostrom ’09, Evansville, Ind., on piano; and Ilan Klages-Mundt ’09, Winona, Minn., on cello.
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