On eve of campus performance, Grunstein reflects on music and art

If you thought that playing a piano recital at New York’s storied Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall might be different from playing a piano recital at Holy Cross’ Brooks Concert Hall, think again.

Reflecting on her experiences with both, renowned pianist Sarah Grunstein, assistant professor of music at Holy Cross, says, “The music you’re making in the moment — that’s the only music that exists. There is nothing else. The event I’m in is the most important that there is. Every audience is the ultimate audience.”

On March 27 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Hall, Grunstein will once again present her craft and hard work in a recital titled “Intimacy and Drama: Chopin and Brahms.” The first half will feature diverse works by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. “I find it fascinating to explore the dimensions of Chopin’s creative genius. The recital will feature the various genres of prelude, mazurka, ballade and the Funeral March Sonata. As composer, pianist, and improviser, Chopin finds all kinds of different ways through which to express intimacy and drama.”

Boston cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws will join Grunstein for the second half of the recital for Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 99. “Here we have intimacy and drama, still in the 19th century, now using a whole different language, and shared by the dialogue of cellist and pianist.”

Grunstein, who hails from Sydney, Australia, attributes much of her artistic inspiration to the work of her father, painter Bill Grunstein. Bill pursues art with the same energy, his daughter says, as his practical career in manufacturing. He was a teacher for the prestigious Royal Art Society of New South Wales in Sydney, serving as its director from 1989 to 1996. He has held numerous exhibitions in Australia. The walls of Sarah’s childhood home were filled with her father’s paintings, to the extent that hundreds were stacked in a room upstairs, unable to find available wall space to be hung.

In such an environment, she says, “You’re constantly learning, though there isn’t a ‘lesson’ as such.” What Sarah Grunstein absorbed as a child was the artist’s ability “to create fantasy out of mere reality, to take others there, and to merge that world with this.” She adds, “This phenomenon is the same in art as in music.”

Grunstein reflects on her father’s immense influence, and writes of him “from the perspective of both an artist and as a daughter” in the book she has co-authored with Colin Parker, titled Bill Grunstein: A Retrospective, published in 2006 by Phillip Matthews in New South Wales, Australia. Born and raised in Poland, Bill was captured by German soldiers during World War II in 1942. He painted portraits of Nazi SS officers to survive his time in concentration camps. After immigrating to Australia, he married Chana “Hania” Anna Bornstein, whom he had met in Eggenfelden, a refugee center in Germany after the war. In Australia he pursued his passion for painting in oils and watercolors — mainly vibrant and colorful landscapes, along with abstract work.

For Sarah Grunstein, there is no divide between the art of painting and that of music, except for the temporal aspect of music. Writing from the perspective of artist to artist, she notes, “We recognize that art is created in the mind, the eye, the hand, the memory, and the soul. Sitting in her Brooks office amidst paintings and piano, she says, “The only difference in creation, for music, is not the eye, but the ear.”

“My father’s artworks were a constant inspiration in their texture, color, light, shape and form. I learned to see something new each day — to see beyond what my eye could see. We find these same entities in music.”

Grunstein started her career at Holy Cross five years ago, with degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

“It’s really apparent that the students in our music department are thinking musicians, something you can hear both in their performance and in their discourse about music,” she says. “It’s really quite thrilling.”

Grunstein teaches music courses, piano, and chamber music. She implemented the monthly Performance Forums in the spring semester of 2002 to provide an arena for students to perform among each other and garner insight into their work through dialogue among faculty and students. She also implemented the Chamber Music Festival, an annual showcase of student performances featuring music composed for small ensembles.

“One of the most special features of playing chamber music is that it is a delight not only for the audience in an intimate setting, but for the players in their musical exchange,” she says. “Performers in our music department ensembles range from freshmen to graduating seniors, and coach with faculty for the entire year. I am so delighted that this year our Chamber Music Festival will be part of the College’s Academic Conference in April.”

“There’s something special about our music students,” she says. “Each faculty member works hard with them on an individual basis. The combination of such training and the students’ natural ability draws them to understand music, its history, and its compositional aspect. What emerges are musicians who are thoughtful and intelligent.”