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Krystofiak Directs Summer Art Program
6/28/2007
 For three weeks this summer, gifted music students from Houston Independent School District gathered at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts to hone their skills. The summer program is designed for top music students from the music magnate schools and provides the young musicians an experience that is in keeping with HSPVA itself: unique and demanding. When UST Adjunct Professor of piano Paul Krystofiak assumed the director’s position of the 15th Annual Summer Academy for Scholarship in the Art, his own summer schedule proved equally challenging.
Directing the piano program matched, if not exceeded, the students’ own rigorous schedule due in large part to Krystofiak’s already full summer. The invitation to be director was made very late as the position came open suddenly. "I could not pass up this wonderful opportunity even though I had many commitments already for the summer including UST's Piano Camp and Summer I classes, private students, state convention, contests and other activities,” Krystofiak said. “But it was a easy decision - I just had to rearrange my schedule very quickly." At the academy, he daily juggled 12-15 private lessons as well as delivered the final lecture each day to a group of 50 students and supervised six assistants in theory, music history, sight reading and practice.
At the academy, piano students auditioned the first day for placement in one of four groups. After hearing the students perform individually, Krystofiak selected a new piano piece specifically chosen for the student’s abilities. Over the three week period the student studied, prepared and memorized the music for performance at a public recital on the final day. “This is a very rare and challenging program since the students are required to learn in a short period of time and perform in concert from memory very difficult music they have never heard or seen before,” Krystofiak explained. “Most college piano majors would think twice before taking on such a task. This is all accomplished in three weeks by young students. Of course some of these students are very gifted which made it a lot of fun as well as challenging."
Geographically, HISD encompasses more than 300 square miles and covers a broad ethnic spectrum over the distance. “It was very rewarding to work with students and teachers from such diverse backgrounds,” Krystofiak said. “It is a testament to the power of music to unite us regardless of race or other differences. And this experience reaffirms my belief in the need of a strong music education for all students, not only the privileged. Moreover, a wonderful connection between HSPVA and UST came out of the program. I was overwhelmed that the academy went so well and buoyed by HSPVA principal Dr. Herbert Karpicke’s appreciation."
The experience also gave Krystofiak an opportunity to reminisce, to reaffirm the significance of music and to offer his own talents in a new venue. "One of my former private piano students, Shomit Sengupta, was valedictorian at HSPVA and is now finishing his Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” Krystofiak recalled. “He had told me at one point that I was the biggest influence on his life besides his parents. That speaks to the power of music!” Sengupta was not the only student connection to HSPVA. Krystofiak also noted that Rodolfo Morales, a former UST piano student of his, is now director of the piano department at HSPVA. “It was fun to look back and see the names of many of my past students on the scholarship plaques hanging on the walls at HSPVA. It felt very good to give back."
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