A life-long talent brought to stage

By Patricia Jiayi Ho

Last Saturday evening, the Music and Dance Building's Recital Hall was the place to be for classical music enthusiasts. The 250-seat venue was filled to the brim with students, faculty and the public, all gathered together for the pleasure of hearing piano professor Hans Boepple play.

This marks the 25th year Boepple has taught at Santa Clara, and his 8th year as chair of the music department. His performance was part of the on-going Faculty Recital Series, a joint effort of the Center of Performing Arts and the music department. Faculty members give their time and talent to the series on a volunteer basis.

"It's a present to the community," Boepple said.

To put his recital together, Boepple practiced for three to four hours a day starting in April. The pieces he played-Mozart's Rondo in A minor, Schubert's Four Impromptus and Brahms' Sonata in F minor-were chosen because "they work together in a kind of crescendo" and share a romantic theme while being somewhat dark.

With numerous of performances under his belt-he estimates around six or seven hundred-Boepple is a veteran. He began piano lessons at the age of four, after watching his older brother play. Progressing quickly, Boepple performed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age nine.

Decades later, Boepple has settled into a comfortable life in Santa Clara and currently resides about a mile from campus.

Visiting a professor's office is often like taking a peek into his life. Some professors have sparsely furnished rooms; others prefer regal-looking furniture and volumes of books stacked from floor to ceiling. Ergonomic chairs are not uncommon; large jars of Red Vines are.

Walk into Professor Boepple's office and there's no mistaking his area of expertise. Two seven-foot Steinway and Sons pianos, one of which he has had since he was 12 years old, take up the most space. Music scores are lined up neatly on his shelves. Among old photographs of composers and a replica of Chopin's death mask, are pictures of his wife, Bryn, and his three children.

His two eldest, Christine ('95) and Morgan ('01), both attended Santa Clara, while the younger son is still in high school.

Although only a small handful of pianist make their living solely by giving concerts, Boepple said he considers his teaching arrangement the ideal.

"Performing is a mixed thing because of the rather unnatural tension involved," Boepple said. "There's a real magic that can happen at performances, it's quite indescribable. It's really like whispering in [an audience member's] ear. It's very, very intimate."

Although born in New York in 1949, Boepple spent his formative years in Southern California, where his family relocated to when he was 5. Boepple went to Pasadena High School and later attended Indiana University, receiving his bachelor's and master's degree in piano performance.

Boepple said music is his primary passion and teaching is a natural extension.

"I just love music well-played and well-made," he says. "I can go to a concert or listen to a CD, or I can help other people to make music well."

Sharing his love for the expressive power of music is also a motivation.

"My goal in teaching is to try to get a student to the point where they're actually responding on a genuine, sort of private way to music," Boepple said. "It often happens in just a certain moment and you can sense that there was something very personal that was said. I know that they will never be able to walk away from music."

If that is the criteria, Boepple can count himself successful with senior John Harlander, a civil engineering and music major who has been taking private lessons with Boepple for three years.

"I'll probably get a job as an engineer, but music is going to be with me forever," Harlander says. "Mr. Boepple has done so much to increase my understanding and appreciation of music."

Patience and kindness, according to Harlander, characterize Boepple's teaching style. Also, because of the abstract nature of music, Boepple often finds ingenious ways to help his students think about music from angles that otherwise might not have been considered.

"Mr. B. is sort of famous in the music department for his metaphors - comparing complex assignments or pieces to household appliances, buildings, and race cars," Harlander said. "You'll approach a piece or a theory assignment from one direction, and when you go to him for input, he makes you see or hear it in a completely different manner."

Boepple's students, boasts the recital's program flyer, have won over one hundred state, national and international awards.

Boepple's enthusiasm for music spills over into the weekends. He can often be found on Saturday and Sunday mornings in his office playing the piano.

"My son asked me, 'Can't you just take the weekend off and just chill?'" Boepple recalls with a chuckle. "I love what I'm doing; it's not a job at all. It's what I would be doing even if I wasn't paid to do it."