Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 28, 1985, edition 1 / Page 6
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wM^:.>^: V',; yA- A' -v, > ■ j/Thursday, March 28,1985/THE BLUE BANNER ^TK>- Ruiz shares talents with UNCA community 3y Chris Streppa and Sylvia Hawkins Dr. Michael Ruiz lunches his shoulders and .iresses into the piano, iis expression is one of Intense concentration, ilmost pain. His fingers ^.race melodies he has ilayed many times before. The music rolls through the empty auditorium; the Light trills of a Bach lonata becoming the pas sion of a Chopin etude before turning into a piece Ruiz himself com posed. Even in practice, his playing reflects his mas tery of what 20th century pianist Jorge Bolet called the "perfectionist's pro fession. " "I've always been sur prised at how much you can get out of yourself," says the chairman of the phys ics department. "And^ the further you go it seems the more talent you have." Ruiz' talents encompass two exacting fields, piano and physics. His interest in both began when he was in grade school. He asked his parents for a piano when he was 12. "Every time I heard a piano as a kid, I had an attraction to it I couldn't explain," he says. "I always had a de sire to play the instru ment ." The next eight years were a combination of pri vate lessons and self in struction. Ruiz doesn't remember more than a day going by when he didn't play piano back then, but he considers his early education spotty. "I felt inferior because all these girls could play Beethoven sonatas and I couldn't," he admits. But at the University of Maryland, Ruiz discovered that "even though I couldn't play the Beethoven sonatas, I had some unique playing style." He felt "extremely privileged" when Dr. Stewart Gordon (then head of the piano division, and now chairman of the University's music department) invited Ruiz to join his group of music students. The practices were "nerveracking." They meant pla5rlng for a group of gifted students who knew by heart the piece Ruiz was playing and could detect each and every flaw. "I was surprized that they were impressed by me," he says. Ruiz also perfected his jazz and Improvisatlonal techniques. "It's easy to learn if you are classic2illy trained with a bent to fooling around," he says. But Ruiz dldn't consider pursuing a career as a concert pianist. For one thing, he says, "being in such a big place, being around people who have been playing since age three or four, you never could get a big head." For another, he "only had a few more years to go" to get his doctorate in physics. Ruiz accepted a teaching position at UNCA in 1978. Two years later, at the age of 30, he became chairman of the Physics Department. He soon found himself "overwhelmed by administrative responsibilities" as well as the demands of teaching. Plano faded into the background for four years. "I forgot the music," says Ruiz. "I just let it go." Now, thanks to his Elderhostel summer class (a series of lecture/ recitals for senior citizens) and the third Humanities course ("The Ifcxlem World"), Ruiz is rediscovering the "happy medium." "He's one of the closest things we've got to a Renaissance man on this campus," says Dr. Peg Downes, chairman of the Humanities Department. "He's an expert and well-respected scientist" as well as a gifted musician. Downes says Ruiz com bines his talent with his understanding of music's historical context in a lecture/concert that makes the music of the 18th and 19th century come cillve for humanities students. Sophomore David Rey nolds enjoyed Ruiz' Feb ruary concert. "The pur pose of humanities is to give students an under standing and an apprecia tion of how civilizations developed," he says. "Hearing how music has changed goes right along with that." Ruiz is also sharing the joys of music with his own children. He often sits one-and-one-half- year-old daughter Frances beside him on the piano bench. While he plays com plex chords with his right hand, Frances bangs out the occasional accent chord with her tiny left. With the combined duties of parenting and teaching, Ruiz says he doesn't find much time to practice. But when he does, he works hard. Practice means dissecting the music into its right and left hand components, endlessly repeating dif ficult passages, listening to every note with a critical ear. "I would like to play a lot better," says Ruiz, "to improve the level of technique I have now." He views "absolute perfec tion" as the combination of technical accuracy and emotional abandon. "And that," he says, "takes a lifetime."
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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March 28, 1985, edition 1
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