
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 22, 1993                   TAG: 9307210221
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD.                                LENGTH: Medium

FOR CELLOISTS, IT IS A WORLD-CLASS CONTEST

Charged with cello adrenaline, Pansy Chang, 23, is trying to relax in her flowing red gown. She has just delivered a seemingly killer performance before a tough audience of master cellists and rising young stars in a College Park theater.

The applause was generous.

But Chang, who lives in Vienna, Va., can't believe it's happening.

"I'm pretty shocked that I'm here today," she says, with the genuine wonderment of the unjaded in her eyes. "A week ago, I was going to drop out."

Instead she is a semifinalist in the most important cello competition in the world this year.

The University of Maryland International Leonard Rose Cello Competition is limited to artists ages 18 to 30, with $50,000 in prizes at stake. Named after a great American cello player who died in 1984, the competition is sponsored by the Maryland Summer Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts. The contest began last week with 32 cellists representing 13 countries.

Twelve competitors made it to the semifinal round, and they are performing in four days of recitals, beginning with Chang's Sunday afternoon. Three finalists will advance to a recital Saturday night at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, performing with the National Symphony Orchestra, after which the winner will be named.

The lack of other major cello forums this year guaranteed that the best of a generation of cellists would compete for a chance to hit the stage of Tawes Theatre on the College Park campus.

"Every cellist under the sun is here," says Melissa Brooks, of St. Louis, one of eight Americans who made the initial cut to 32.

Even the veterans seem impressed.

"The actual technique of playing the instrument has become so much more advanced than it was 50 years ago," says Bernard Greenhouse, a senior cellist and chairman of the international jury that is judging the competition. "It's frightening. It's so wonderful."

And something else becomes clear if you hang out long enough around the warren of practice rooms and classrooms at the university's music department during the competition. Suddenly, playing the cello is cool.

It all started a while back when cello celebrity Yo-Yo Ma released a compact disc with vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin. The new generation of cello artists isn't bothered by the mixing of genres.

"I think it's great," says Brooks, also a semifinalist. "Classical music shouldn't be stodgy."

by CNB