\nCurrent Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time you perform, you never know who is in the audience. They may be sad about something going on in their life, and it\u2019s your responsibility to provide what they need through your music.\u201d <\/em>\u2014Nozomi Khudyev<\/p>\n At the age of four, Nozomi Khudyev began taking piano lessons in her native Japan after literally begging for them. But by age six, after a change to an instructor with whom she did not click, Khudyev had sworn off the instrument. As many children do, Khudyev told her mother that she hated the piano and would never touch it again. Now she is a professional collaborative pianist\u2014one who has performed at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Fortunately for us here in Northern Michigan, Khudyev is a piano instructor at Interlochen Arts Academy and the accompanist for the Benzie County Community Chorus. <\/p>\n At the time when Khudyev swore off piano, she could not have cared less; she was ready to move on to sports. She had been swimming since age three, so she continued with that and also added competitive badminton to her sports platform.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Japan, children are encouraged to pick one extracurricular activity and work hard to perfect that,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not like in the [United] States, where kids are encouraged to try a variety of things that interest them.\u201d <\/p>\n But a big cultural shift would happen in Khudyev\u2019s life just a few years later. When she was 14, Khudyev\u2019s father accepted a job in the United States, moving the entire family (father, mother, brother, sister, and Nozomi Khudyev herself) to Chicago. <\/p>\n Her first year was difficult\u2014her English was poor, and she had to adjust to an entirely different culture in American public schools. In Japan, Khudyev explains, the culture of the classroom is quiet and respectful, with students bowing to teachers upon entering the room. During her first day of school in Chicago, however, the math teacher entered the classroom, hopped up onto his deck, and began the introduction to his class from there, with loud speech and wild gestures. (Picture Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, a la \u201cCaptain, my captain.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u201cHe ended up being an excellent teacher, and I really liked him,\u201d Khudyev laughs. \u201cBut that day, it was a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n While living in Chicago, Khudyev became close with a neighboring lady who played the piano. She developed a pattern of visiting this neighbor, with whom she eventually grew close enough to call her \u201csecond mom,\u201d and\u2014with this woman\u2019s encouragement\u2014Khudyev began playing the piano again. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was completely different this time,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were just playing for fun and the love of music\u2014there was no strictness and rigid practice schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n Before her junior year, Khudyev\u2019s father returned to work in Japan, along with the rest of the family. Learning that she would have to make up two years of academic study if she also returned, Khudyev decided to obtain a student visa and remain in the United States on her own. She researched and found a boarding school where she could study music and finish high school\u2014Interlochen Arts Academy. Khudyev\u2019s \u2018second mom\u2019 knew of Interlochen and was astounded. <\/p>\n \u201cYou want to attend Interlochen?\u201d she asked, somewhat incredulous. \u201cThen you\u2019d better start getting serious about your practicing!\u201d <\/p>\n Even though Khudyev had less than three months to prepare her audition repertoire, she was able to secure a spot as an Interlochen student for her junior and senior years of high school. An early assignment from the school to perform in a trio with a clarinet and a cello led to meeting her future husband, Emil Khudyev, a clarinetist from Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n After graduating from Interlochen, the couple maintained a long-distance relationship while furthering their educations through undergraduate and graduate schools. She attended the University of Michigan on a full-tuition merit scholarship and then received her Master of Music degree in collaborative piano at Julliard. He completed his undergraduate work in clarinet performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music, received his Master of Music in clarinet performance from Yale, and then went on to obtain a postgraduate diploma from the Colburn School.<\/p>\n After graduate school, the couple married, and their combined employment opportunities led them all over the United States and overseas, allowing them to work with prestigious instrumentalists and vocalists in Tokyo, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Naples, and Paris. When the couple found out that they were expecting daughter Adelina (now two), Nozomi followed Emil to Missouri where he was playing with the Kansas City Orchestra. The plan was to put down roots very soon. <\/p>\n \u201cMy schedule has always been more flexible than Emil\u2019s, and it was important to me that\u2014after all those years apart\u2014we prioritize our family being together,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n After Kansas City, he was offered a faculty position as a clarinet instructor at Interlochen. So the family moved back to Northern Michigan with Adelina, and now Nozomi Khudyev also works at Interlochen; she is a piano instructor and accompanist at the school where she once was a student. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are so happy to be back here and to have come full circle in this way,\u201d she says of their return.<\/p>\n Although she has perfect vocal pitch, Khudyev insists that she will never be a singer. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just too hard, with so many things to remember,\u201d she says. \u201cTone, breathing, dynamics, notes, lyrics, pronunciation, pitch\u2014too much!\u201d<\/p>\n Although not familiar with much of today\u2019s radio music, Khudyev does admit to listening to some jazz and some Russian pop, in addition to the classics. However, when asked which composers and pieces influence her most, the classics definitely rise to the top as she quickly gives nod to Rachmaninoff\u2019s Cello Sonata and Ravel\u2019s Piano Trio. Although piano will always be her mainstay, she allows that one day she would not mind learning to play the cello. <\/p>\n
\nThat just simply was not the case.<\/p>\nFinding Piano Again<\/h2>\n
Finding Northern Michigan Again<\/h2>\n
![\"Nozomi](\"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Nozomi-Accompanying-the-BCCC-Christmas-2015-2.jpg\")
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