20 — Wednesday, March 13, 1991 — North Shore News spotlight KX Former Handsworth student returns home for recital T AKING IN a classical music concert ona Sunday morning after an intoxicating evening is asking for trouble. My fiance — not a morning kind of guy anyway — had difficulties this particular day: even a hefty nudge couldn't arouse him from the semi-conscious state brought on by the soothing sounds of Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60 and Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin. But the last piece on the Van- couver Playhouse Sunday Coffee Concert program shook him up like a 1,000-milligram jolt of caf- feine. Katja Cerovsek, the 21-year-old piano virtuoso and sister of violin prodigy Corey Cerovsek, was banging out Balakirev’s Islamey — a work that was considered technically impossible to play when it was first written. She sailed through the piece’s enormously difficult scherzo — her long, white fingers stabbing out chord clusters — capturing its exoticism brilliantly. The following day we met in the Shaughnessy home of Festival Concert Society president, J.J. Johannsen, who invited Cerovsek to play in Vancouver from her home in Bloomington, Indiana. Down-to-earth, with a guileless, bubbly warmth, Cerovsek looks like your average teenager dressed in denim jeans and a loose cable- knit sweater. Performing before hundreds is serious business, but she manages to bring to it a sense of ease, and, especially, humor. “| guess we're freaks,’’ she says half-jokingly when asked to ex- plain how an un-musical family produced not one, but two child prodigies. Sitting shoeless on an antique chair, the baby-faced musician, like her brother, is an amazing success story. Shé started tinkering on the fam- ily piano almost before she knew EVELYN JACOB spotlight feature how to tie her shoe and, by age 10, had made her professiona debut with the Calgary Phithar- monic. Since “getting serious about piano at age 15” (prior to that she considered it just a hobby, even though she’d graduated at age 13 from the Royal Conservatory of Music with a diploma in Piano Performance and the coveted Gold Medal for the highest mark in Canada), Cerovsek has ap- peared as soloist with dozens of orchestras. She’s given recitals in Canada, the U.S. and Europe and performed for national radio and Tv A few years back she and Corey made a guesi appearance on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. “Yeah, | got to play for him (Corey), she sighs with mock en- vy and then laughs. ‘‘It was a great experience. We actually did get to see Johnny for a few minutes after the show — my mom was right in there with her camera. But then he ran off with all five of his bodyguards.” Contrary to what some might think, playing with Corey is some- thing his sister likes to do. “We seem to do it so naturally together,’ she says. ‘‘I think we've got the same musical ideas — we breathe the same way with phrasing. Our interpretations are never very far off.’’ You're probably wondering by now how two child prodigies liv- ing in North Vancouver ended up in Bloomington. The story goes like this: In 1984, Helmut and Sophie Cerovsek packed the fami- ly and U-Haul off to the U.S. after Corey, then 11, became the youngest person ever to be ac- cepted full-time into indiana Uni- versity. Katja was 14. The move meant leaving behind close friends and fellow students at Handsworth Secondary School. It’s clear from listening to her that the event wasn’t a happy one. “tL just tagged along. | didn’t want to leave my friends or Van- couver. To me, Bloomington was just cornfields and cows.”’ In just a short time, however, she found a piano teacher and fell into a steady routine. She also managed to complete her Grade 12 education through cor- See Not page 21 North Shore Light Opera Society presents: Rose Marie A quirky tale of early Canadiana complete with fur- trappers, can-can dancers, uniformed Mounties and the glorious Rocky Mountains. Centennial Theatre North Vancouver March 14, 15, 16, 21 & 22 at 8:00 p.m. March 17 at 2:00 p.m. Box Office 984-4484; 987-PLAY Tickets are $11 for Adults, $9 for Seniors and $7 for children 12 and under. Tickets are available from theatre box offices, through Ticketmaster 280-3311 or try calling 684-7333. Come enjoy the show and enter a free draw to WIN a fabulous trip for two on the “Rocky Mountaineer” courtesy of: THE GREAT CANADIAN RAILTOUR COMPANY LTD. We moved .ali the equipment... carried all the plants... packed up ali our trays and of course brought all the staff with us. 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