A Long Way From Louisiana

Hugh Hinton will be a long way from Minden, Louisiana, when he sits down to play Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto tonight before a packed Sanders Theater audience.

An Adams House junior, Hinton spent the first 14 years of his life in a relatively obscure pocket of Louisiana before coming north to pursue a career in music. After four years at boarding school in New Hampshire--years punctuated by weekend trips to Boston for piano lessons--Hinton made Boston a more permanent home three years ago when he came to Harvard to study music with Russell Sherman of the New England Conservatory.

Now Hinton's travels are paying off. The soft-spoken junior finished first in a December concerto competition held by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, thereby winning a spot on tonight's program with HRO at Sanders.

"It's a great opportunity," says Hinton. "I wish there were more opportunities for undergraduates to play concertos here."

As for winning the HRO contest, Hinton is characteristically modest. "I don't put too much weight on the results of competitions. There are so many subjective things that can enter into it--maybe you have a good day, maybe the judge happens to love the piece you're doing."

But HRO President Alec Garraway '90 is more liberal with congratulations. "It showed a tremendous amount of musical and technical prowess," Garraway says of Hinton's competition winning performance. "He picked a really exciting piece, very difficult to play."

The piece was Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, which Hinton will perform again tonight.

Though he did not enter the HRO competition his first two years at Harvard, Hinton's success is not wholly unprecedented. He has played with both the Boston and Dallas Symphonies and participated in music festivals at both Aspen and Tanglewood.

Asked to characterize his playing style, Hinton says he tries to avoid excessive emphasis on technique. "Some people think the [pianist] should be some kind of transparent glass window that you can look through and see the composer," he explains. "I think it's more complicated than that."

"Here I average about three hours [of practice] a day," he says. "Somebody my age should probably do twice that, but it's hard to find the time outside of classes and work."

Hinton says he plans to graduate next June and move on to a conservatory for more intense study.

According to Garraway, Hinton joins select company with his December victory. Past competition-winners include cellist Yo Yo Ma '76 and pianist Ursula Oppens '65.

"It's a great opportunity for gifted musicians to perform with a high quality orchestra," says Garraway. "It's a great opportunity both for the musicians and for the students who get to hear them play."

Hinton topped a field of 12 to win the HRO competition, competing in two separate sessions at Paine Hall before a team of judges that included faculty from Harvard and the University of Massachusetts.

Though Hinton anticipates some nervousness tonight, he says he's not too worried. Nervous energy can help the musician, he explains, as long as it's channelled in the right direction.

Hinton attributes his recent success to teacher Russell Sherman, but he doesn't rule out Louisiana as a possible influence on his art.

"I don't know," he laughs. "Maybe there's some kind of swamp thing in there somewhere."