Posted on 06/11/2005 5:50:27 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
WASHINGTON — A musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the Kennedy Center concert stage Saturday to accompany a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.
Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago.
The soprano is a granddaughter of Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and his wife Annette, who Rice has known for years. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association, formed in 1990, presented the concert to draw attention to the disease from which more than 100,000 people are known to suffer.
Largely unknown in the United States until about 10 years ago, it has no known cause or cure, but genetic studies and a search for treatment are under way.
Sunshine has persisted in her career and performed with orchestras in Hungary, her grandparents' home before the Holocaust, Denmark and the United States. On Saturday, in a concert entitled, "An Evening of Music, Friendship and Awareness" and hosted by Lantos, she drew the secretary of state to play selections by Verdi, Mozart and Jerome Kern.
Eileen Cornett, of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Md., accompanied Sunshine on a half-dozen other pieces.
Rice, whose first name is a variation on the Italian musical term "con dolcezza," which is a direction to play with sweetness, learned to read music at the age of 3.
As a child she performed, won piano competitions and planned a career as a a concert pianist. But she switched her field of interest to international relations in her junior year at the University of Colorado and went on to be provost at Stanford University, then President Bush's assistant for national security, and now secretary of state.
Despite her busy schedule, Rice finds time to enjoy classical music and plays occasionally and privately with friends in a string quartet.
In February, on a trip to Europe, she visited a Parisian music school, Conservatoire Hector Berlioz, after a session with French political elite.
Rice tapped her toes to keep time as a music teacher led a group of students age 7 to 9 through their scales. She told the youngsters, "It takes a lot of work to learn to read music. You have to practice and practice and practice."
What a wonderful story! Thank you for posting this!
lol
Now there's an image.:)
LOL... That's the worst nightmare any liberal ever has...
Mozart, of course.:)
(This is done totally as non profit - no money ever exchanges hands, which is why, I believe Dylan let's it go on. People who bootleg and make money off copyrighted material are a different story.)
Wonder if "Condi boots" will ever be available?
Oh my - the Cellist - wow! I can't believe I got that wrong.
I saw a few clips of the event - and it was great!! She's very talented.
Yo Yo Ma??
He from Brooklyn?? :)
Would've loved to have seen it.
To think that many blacks don't want to look up to her as a great example of what black can do in this country...
Oh, you mean like Hillery?
.
.
.
/obscene sarcasm
LOL ;)
I would love to see clips -- are they online somwhere?
ping
Picture! Picture, please! I really do want a picture of a true, gifted and elegant lady! This would be priceless.
It was at Carnegie Hall - but that's all I remember.
Hillary can't tap her foot to the beat, but she sure can kick her philandering hubby in the ass....in private of course.
whadda ya mean "sick"...
Like, "oh! I'm gonna puke sick"?
....or like "hey! lookie at Joey humping a dog,that is 'sick"?.....or "That car is so bitchin, it is illin SICK!!"
What a wonderful story and so typical of this administration.
Can I say it? WHAT A CONTRAST!
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