Cook Shares Her Music with the World
By Amy Milgrub Marshall
Many Penn State faculty members travel around the world to conduct their research. Kim Cook is one of them--except she travels to famous concert halls to play the cello.
Cook, an associate professor of music, says she is glad Penn State recognizes composing and performing as musicians' research. "Music is a whole area of culture built on tradition, and it has such a rich history," she explains. "It's very important for musicians to have the experience of creating new music and performing--that's what being a musician is all about."
Cook, who joined the Penn State faculty in 1991, recently returned from a trip to the Czech Republic, where she premiered a solo cello concerto written for her by Czech composer Zdenek Pololanik. She performed the work with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Zlin. Gerardo Edelstein, Penn State's director of orchestras and music director of Music at Penn's Woods, conducted the orchestra for this concert.
Cook previously performed with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in 1995, when she toured Germany and the Czech Republic at the invitation of Music at Penn's Woods guest conductor Peter Luecker. That collaboration resulted in recordings of Joseph Haydn's cello concertos in C and D major, and an invitation for Cook to return to Zlin for another joint performance. The most recent performance, in February, was also recorded for a compact disc.
In addition to premiering Pololanik's "Capriccio," Cook and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic performed Max Bruch's "Kol Nidrei." The concert concluded with Cook's performance of Antonin Dvorak's "Concerto in B Minor," which earned her a standing ovation. "It was very gratifying to work with a Czech orchestra on Dvorak," says Cook. "As an American, I felt like it was a great honor to perform a Czech's work with Czech musicians. This performance was a highlight of my musical experiences," she adds.
That experience is one she wants to share with her students in order to demonstrate the opportunities that may be available for them. "I want my students to aim for projects like this--projects that keep music alive," says Cook. "Music translates easily to other cultures, and traveling is such an eye-opening experience," she adds.
Cook says exposing students to music of other cultures is a vital part of their music education. The School of Music takes students to Europe every few years--an important trip, she says, because they get to see where western classical music was born.
Cook gives one-on-one lessons to cello students and directs the twenty-five-student Cello Choir. "One-on-one instruction is the best way to be taught," explains Cook. "With music, you have to teach the full person. Your playing tells everything about you." Cooks says discipline and motivation are essential to becoming a successful musician. She explains that students who really want to make it in the music world keep trying, no matter what comes their way. "If their hearts are in it, they keep trying," she notes. "Persistence is a quality you'll find in all successful musicians--that and a true love of what we do," she adds.
Cook's persistence has certainly paid off. She earned a master of music degree at Yale University, after which she served as principal cellist of the Sao Paulo State Symphony and taught at New Mexico State University until coming to Penn State in 1991. She has performed solo recitals at New York's Carnegie Hall and, in summer 2000, was the first Penn State faculty member to perform at London's Wigmore Hall. In 1996, she toured for nine weeks as Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, giving concerts and master classes in Barbados, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru. Cook has been heard on national television and radio in Brazil, China, and the United States. In addition to the concertos of Dvorak and Haydn, she has recorded the solo sonatas of Kodaly, Crumb, and Hindemith, among other works. This summer, she has been invited to tour Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to perform with orchestras in Damascus, Amman, and Beirut. For more information on Kim Cook, visit her Web site.