Lipscomb's Jerome Reed performs signature work in Japan and Taiwan

Janel Shoun | 

Lipscomb artist-in-residence Jerome Reed spent his Thanksgiving holiday celebrating the true spirit of generous giving, but he did it on the other side of the globe.

Reed, professor of music, and his wife and daughter traveled to Japan and Taiwan over the Thanksgiving break to present his signature performance of Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata to crowds of music lovers.

Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass. 1840-1860 is a four-movement, solo piano work by American composer Ives. It is considered one of the most physically and musically challenging works ever written and it is rarely performed, said Reed. Which made Reed’s recent performance a particularly exciting opportunity for Asian music professors.

Many of the music professors he met in Taiwan and Japan had earned their doctorates in America, so they had all studied the Concord Sonata but none had ever heard it performed, he said.

Reed said he considers it not only an invaluable educational experience, but also something of a personal ministry, to bring this masterwork of American music, to music lovers throughout the world.

“The work allows me to take a part of American literature to these cultures. It also includes the idea of transcendentalism and has a spiritual tone to it, so it’s a great work to export to other countries. Most international countries will never intersect with this part of American history,” Reed said.
The international pianist has performed the work more than 40 times in America and in seven different nations. He performed it at Lipscomb this past March, with the help of Lipscomb First Lady Rhonda Lowry, to allow the graduating seniors a chance to hear the work before heading off to their music careers.

Reed’s presentation includes a largely solo performance of the Sonata along with a slideshow of scenic and historic sites around Concord, Mass., the original inspiration of the work. Reed took the photos during two trips to Concord.

The four movements of the work take their titles from important writers who lived in Concord between 1840 and 1860: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson and Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Selections from Ives’ Essays Before a Sonata are read during Reed’s performance of the work.

Before the performance, Reed gives a lecture to point out the significance of the various slides, writings and the styles of American music referenced in the Sonata, including hymns such as “Fairest Lord Jesus,” patriotic tunes and ragtime music. In some cases, he is able to invite a local musician to play in portions of the work.

Reed’s performances were funded by a portion of a $10,000 internal grant from the Lipscomb 2010 program, used to enhance specific fields of study at the university. He also drew on Lipscomb alums and friends of the university to get all the needed translations and publicity for the concerts.

For his Japanese performance, a former Lipscomb student Megumi Hosokawa (’01) translated the writings and lectures into Japanese and coordinated inviting an audience made up largely of American expatriates and members of the Ochanomizu Church of Christ, where her father is an elder.

For the Taiwanese performances, the writings were translated into Chinese by the father of Lipscomb adjunct viola professor Clare Yang. Yang’s father is a retired English professor in China whose specialty was Emerson, particularly appropriate for translating the works reflected in the Concord Sonata, Reed said. He was assisted by another former student, Christine Wang (’94), who entered all the translations into Powerpoint.

Reed performed at four universities in Taiwan and also presented a master’s class.