47 was the school that gave up. By then, I was almost 13. In three years I completed seven years of work.” There was no doubt that she would become a concert pianist, and it was during her fourth year at the university that her big chance came. “A Hungarian musician and teacher who left Hungary during the 1956 revolution to teach at Illinois State University established a master’s scholarship program at that university so that one Hungarian student each year could study there. Finally after 40 years, when the Iron Curtain fell, he was able to return to Hungary. Each year afterward he came to select a winner for the scholarship at ISU. The year I received my diploma from the Franz Liszt Academy in Pécs, he held a master class there, and I played a Chopin piece for him. He chose me. I cried and cried because it represented such a change in my life, far away from home, but I was so happy.” To accept the scholarship, Loparits had to pass an extensive English exam. Though fluent in Russian and German with a smattering of French, she had never studied English. “My parents were amazing. They paid for a private instructor to come every day,” she says. “Each night I slept with headphones on listening to the BBC hoping that English would soak in. I had only three months before the test. I remember being on the bus in Budapest the day of the test. It was a gray day, and I thought, ‘There is no way I am going to pass this.’ Then suddenly I felt in my heart that I was walking into certainty — I don’t know how to explain it. And miracu-lously, Elizabeth Loparits “Nobody in my family is a musician, so I didn’t know anything about music until one day when I heard a young girl play Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise.’ I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.” www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM even though my score was a little bit low, I made it. I passed.” She completed her master’s at Illinois State University and went on to receive her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. With a soft, charming accent and impec-cable English, she continues the story of how she came to Wilmington. “I had a friend, a jazz musician, who was playing at Airlie Gardens some years ago. I came along and while here I visited UNCW. I’d always loved the ocean, and as I was walking that day on campus, I looked down and saw a little bit of beach sand, and I thought, ‘Wow, if I could ever live here, it would be magic!’ Then sev-eral years later, this position opened up and so I came — with only my keyboard and my cat.” Loparits loves her work at the university, and she is especially proud of the accomplishments of the private students she teaches through UNCW’s Community Music Academy. Recently one of her stu-dents was the youngest contestant in his category to win the coveted Deas Student Concerto Competition, now in its 37th year and named for the F late Richard Deas, former chairman of the UNCW Music Department. The winner of the competition performs in concert at Kenan Auditorium with the Wilmington Youth Symphony Orchestra. or Nancy King, founder of UNC-WOOP! (UNCW’S Opera Outreach Project), a prime example of that program’s success is summed up in the comment of a second grader at Coddington Elementary School. Listening to their chatter as the children were leaving a performance her collegiate singers had presented from the opera “Hansel and Gretel,” King overheard a little boy exclaim with unabashed delight, “That was the greatest show ever; I didn’t even care if it was opera!” King says, “To think that these little second and third graders could sit for almost an hour and listen to the finest classical music. These are not operas that are written to dumb down the level. This is high art that these kids were listening to and they really responded to it. I love these moments, too, for my college students when they make the brilliant connections between what they’ve learned in the classroom and the life experiences they’ve had, and it all folds together into a perfor-mance where they reach this new level of being able to communicate. It was kind of a magic moment for them — when they performed for those little kids, they all felt like rock stars.” McKenzie shares many of the same feelings and ideas that King and Loparits have about the value of her art. She sums it up this way: “For 40 years I’ve been a performer. I’ve had a lot of experience as an educator and as an entrepreneur in the arts. Music is definitely a spiritual thing and there are so many pathways to follow. It is in imagination — without boundaries — where we are able to freely think, explore and discover.” Each one of these vibrant musicians has made her impact on the community. Exuding energy and enthusiasm, they claim that it is the effect their work has on those whose lives they touch that makes it all worthwhile. Imagination, inspiration and dedication: three driving forces for three dynamic performers.
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