From Campus to Carnegie Hall, Music Professor Sarah Grunstein Performs Bach

Acclaimed Australian pianist Sarah Grunstein, assistant professor of music at the College of the Holy Cross, has just returned from performing the first of three All-Bach Recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, N.Y. and is recovering from "performance demands," as she describes them.

"Today, I am elated," she says. "I played this huge concert two days ago that was a big event. I feel like I’m coming down from Mars. In order to perform, you have to go into another realm. Performing a recital involves transcending what seems human and everyday experience: your whole focus and energy level go into another creative place.

"Ironically, as musicians, we practice our whole lives in order to sound effortless. Practicing and performing require physical work, mental focus, and a deep study of the scores. After all of that, our role is to make the music our own. When I play Bach, for example, I am not just playing Bach. The questions become, ‘what do I want to convey that is mine?’ ‘How do I reveal my own creative spirit in this music?’ "

Grunstein’s return to Carnegie Hall is special: Her triumphant debut was staged in the prestigious space in 1984. She has performed internationally as a soloist since.

"Carnegie Hall is one of the most important places to play in the world and Weill Recital Hall is a remarkably beautiful concert hall," she says in her delightful Australian accent. "It’s just very special to be able to make music in a venue that has such an extraordinary ambience in New York. It’s really exciting."

She has been teaching at Holy Cross for the past two-and-a-half years. She is currently on leave but is looking forward to returning to work with the students.

"One of the things I established in the department is a Performance Forum that takes place once a month in Brooks Concert Hall," she explains. "The forum is an informal place where the department gathers to hear several students perform works in progress. Each performance is followed by constructive support and discussion, from both student-colleagues and faculty. The purpose is to have performance grow in the department, and to engage in a discourse about music. It’s been a very positive experience. The Forum is the place where performance and dialogue about music meet."

Grunstein has received notable recognition for her own work.

"Miss Grunstein is a versatile, expressive pianist who combines a penetrating musical intelligence with the technical proficiency to realize her ideas," wrote a reviewer for The New York Times.

She is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award for Young Australians and is a Steinway Concert Artist.

Throughout her career, Grunstein has performed concerts in the United States, Austria, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom. In Australia, she has appeared as soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the State Orchestra of Victoria, and the Melbourne Musicians.

"Music is my life. It’s the way I express myself," she says. "What I love about playing music is that music, in any style, is an array of sounds and silences that one can shape in lines, and textures and forms. It’s kind of like poetry ... we can make it through our own voice and expressiveness. At the piano, we create a voice through our hands."

Grunstein holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York, and a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where she held a Teaching Fellowship for four years following graduation.

Professor Grunstein has taught at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the City University of New York, Fordham University, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the Victorian College of the Arts.

Grunstein is in the middle of performing the complete partitas and Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach in a series of three separate recitals, both of which she will perform at the College and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

The first of Grunstein’s three performances at Holy Cross in January was dedicated to the thousands of victims of the earthquake and the tsunami that devastated parts of Asia and east Africa.

Her remaining recital at Holy Cross is March 31 at 8 p.m. in the Brooks Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Her recitals at Carnegie Hall are on March 2 and April 6 at 8 p.m. Price of admission for each concert is $25, $10 concession.