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Show Cross Currents Page 12 May 2, 1997 Norman Krieger gives the gift of music to children Written by Constance M. Gotsch Photographs by Josh Stephenson orman Krieger is happy at the piano key-- a packed house in Hong Kong. Hes happy tif New York s Carnegie Hall. Hes happy at a piano in front of Cortez or Pagosa Springs school children or on stage with the San Juan Symphony in Farmington and Durango. Hes really happy as the of the Southwest Cultural Complex administered by Fort Lewis College in Durango. That position gets him into auditoriums filled with Four Comers school kids for Informances, Kriegers name for a mixture of playing and educational chatter about classical music Norman Krieger works with school children because, The great music of Bach and Bernstein is artist-in-tesiden- ce . uplifting and enlightening." I have a stack p letters from kids who said they were going to give up the piano," he explains, his normally soft voice rising with excitement. And after my Informances, they decided to continue." As Krieger serves the entire Four Corners region, working to show kids that playing piano can be fun for a lifetime, and that classical music is friendly. He dresses casually when he visits schools so theyre not intimidated by someone in a black suit walking on a stage and playing an instrument that looks like a coffin. He shares anecdotes about his career, and always gets a laugh when he says that he hated to practice as a kid. Tien I was eight or nine, my path was he explains to his listeners. I never intendsports, ed to be a pianist. He changed his mind after a teacher made him see the relationship between warming up for a football game and playing scales. He began musical studies in his native Los Angeles, and by age 15 received a full scholarship to attend the Juilliard School in New York. ' Now, he practices daily, warming up with 20 minutes of scales and special stretching exercises to . IW'SaC-- ' !SS-'vs- v ' tn S i Krsmc3f awC'rawr-- 3 5aMKr C" 3T ( r v f V iiiftinai - 0 of artist-in-residen- thank-yo- u |