Judith Jackson is not one to apologize for her chosen field. “I know a lot of pianists who think accompanying and operatic work are boring and limiting, in terms of their own creativity. But I find it very challenging–and I really love it! Basically, being a rehearsal pianist, I get to see the work born, built from scratch, and brought through to real maturity–and at that point I leave it. I’ve always been a person who likes building blocks and the creative process. Even though there’s a lot of excitement in performance, rehearsals are what get my creative juices flowing. I like the spontaneity, finding mistakes, finding what works.”
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Jackson is a native of Youngstown, Ohio, did her graduate work at the Eastman School in Rochester, New York, and has worked for symphonies from Denver to Portland, Maine. She is friendly but private. Her only complaint about her long hours at the piano is an occasional back problem. She is the single most important element at COT staging rehearsals, sitting at the piano for hours at a time, playing with cheerful intensity, taking a swig from one of a series of Diet Coke cans when pauses in the music permit. She’s so quietly competent that it’s easy to take her for granted, until she takes a day off. “When I’m playing for rehearsals, I don’t have to make the musical decisions–the conductor does that. I just have to be the best orchestra that he can have. I try to make colors in my playing, to give an idea of the orchestra colors the singers will be hearing.”
Sometimes she disagrees with a conductor’s conception of a given work. “That’s another challenge–to be true to your conductor and what he or she wants to accomplish, and still keep intact your own personal ideals and personal views.”
Her concert with the Lake Shore Symphony will take place at 3:30 PM on Sunday, April 8, at the Copernicus Cultural and Civic Center, 5216 W. Lawrence; also on the program are the overture from Verdi’s Nabucco and Sibelius’s Symphony no.1. Tickets are $8 for adults, and $6 for students and seniors. For more information call 728-5807.
