September 23, 2009 11-year-old Bethany Brooks is a piano prodigy By KATHY KIRBY kkirby@muncie.gannett.com When Bethany Brooks was 5 years old, she watched and listened as someone played a children's nursery rhyme on the piano. Once home, she eagerly started playing the melody on her family's piano. It was then that her mother, Diane Brooks, realized her daughter had a gift. "She has an eye and ear for music," Diane said. "I knew that had to be nurtured. It shouldn't have surprised me, but it did, for her to come home and play a song like Mary Had a Little Lamb." Bethany began taking piano lessons at home, eagerly embracing her newfound love. She then started studying under piano teacher Judy Kiger at Cornerstone Center for the Arts. "I can just hear something and then play it," said Bethany, now age 11, in a modest but matter-of-fact tone. "If I could, I'd play all of the time. I like really fast and loud songs, just like me and my personality." Songs like Small Fry by Norman Dello Joio and Fiddler by Eugenie Rocherolle, she quickly noted. When she first heard Small Fry, she knew she had to play it herself, even though it was more advanced than the songs she had been learning. Seven days later, she could play the entire song. She also likes to reproduce the sounds of Disney movie songs, like Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book, and the theme song from Beauty and Beast. Ludwig van Beethoven's music, she says, "is hard, like the Ninth Symphony Ode to Joy." Sitting on the stage in the auditorium at Cornerstone, Bethany recalled her first recital there in April of 2006. Because of the jitters, Kiger sat on the piano bench beside her as she played Colorful Sunset by Nancy Faber. "I was really nervous," she said. "My hands were shaking, but it was a short piece and I played it." Since then, she has played two to four recitals a year at Cornerstone. With each recital, she has gotten a little less nervous. "It feels better now," she said. "My hands still shake, but my heart doesn't beat as fast anymore." This past March, she played A Mighty Fortress is Our God by Martin Luther in the Judge's Choice Recital at Ball State University after the National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Festival. "She is a very fine student, terribly smart, very devoted and very conscientious," Kiger said. "It's an usual child who can start that young and stay with it. She has a greater ability to concentrate than most children do and she learns very quickly." Bethany's gift at the piano also has caught the attention of Terry Whitt Bailey, president and CEO of Cornerstone. "I usually ask her to perform for me when I need a student to play the piano at an event," she said. "She's very gifted." Bethany has played at Cornerstone's board of directors meetings and other functions. She takes her piano lessons under Cornerstone's 401 (K)IDS Scholarship Program, which provides the opportunity for children in grades 4-12 to pursue the arts area of his or her choice. Recently, Bethany started playing another musical instrument, the trombone, at Northside Middle School, where she is a sixth-grader. "I like it, but my first love is the piano," she said. "It just feels right to me." Additional Facts In honor of the Governor's Arts Awards, the Life Department is featuring Muncie-area artists this week: · Sunday: Ben Gordy, frame maker. · Tuesday: Debra Gindhart Dragoo, painter and jewelry maker. · Today: Bethany Brooks, pianist Also in Life this week, find out more about the ArtsWalk in Thursday's Star Press and welcome home Angelin Chang in Friday's Star Press. Governor's Arts Awards schedule of events Thursday 5-9 p.m.: ArtsWalk, downtown Muncie. Art exhibitions, performances, activities and sidewalk displays. Also, "Face of Garfield" exhibit by Jim Davis in Muncie Visitors Bureau. 7:30 p.m.: Charley's Aunt at Muncie Civic Theatre. Friday 4:30-6 p.m.: Arts Exposé, Cornerstone Center for the Arts, 520 E. Main St. Local artists will showcase their work in a relaxed, informal setting, allowing attendees to gather before dinner. 6-7:45 p.m.: Dinner. A formal dinner, catered by Vera Mae's, will be served in the Colonnade Room of Cornerstone Center for the Arts. 8 p.m.: Awards ceremony in the Edmund Burke Ball Auditorium, Cornerstone Center for the Arts. 9:30-11 p.m.: Afterglow. Continue your evening in the Great Room with the award recipients, live music, refreshments and friends. Tickets for the entire evening (Arts Exposé, dinner, awards ceremony, and afterglow) are $80. Single tickets can be bought for the Arts Exposé, awards ceremony and afterglow for $10 each. Information: 281-9503, ext. 11. Saturday 10 a.m.: "Open Space Art Exhibition," Minnetrista Cultural Center. 7:30 p.m.: Muncie Symphony Orchestra featuring Grammy Award winner Angelin Chang, Emens Auditorium, Ball State University. 7:30 p.m.: Charley's Aunt at Muncie Civic Theatre.