Voices: Joplin has benefited

May 01, 2008 09:59 pm

— I have lived in Joplin for about nine years, longer than any other location in my adult life. I am occasionally asked by old acquaintances, “Why Joplin?”
Part of the answer to that question is the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition (MSIPC).
For a town the size and demography of Joplin, that event stands out as unique and exceptional in my experience.
I am not a musician, but enjoy all sorts of good music.
Soon after moving to Joplin, I was introduced to MSIPC and became involved in attending the event, then working as a committee member for a few years. Space does not allow me to expound on all the benefits that I received from that experience, but they were numerous.
One stands out.
I met a man from China who is about my age.
He has stayed in my home and I in his. As a baby, his mother carried him on the Long March. While I was in college he was sent to Tibet for re-education during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He and his family were in Tiananmen Square one hour before those tanks rolled in.
I have visited his home in Toronto, Canada, and watched him teach piano lessons and conduct his community Chinese choir. I even sang in the choir. I experienced all of that as a direct result of participation in MSIPC.
MSIPC would not happen without the active support of the Joplin community. But the community at large, individual members of the community and Missouri Southern benefit greatly from that event. However, MSIPC would also have never happened were it not for the tireless leadership and effort of Vivian Leon, a remarkable lady.
It saddens me to think that Vivian and MSIPC will not continue, but unless someone extraordinary steps up, that may well happen.
It is a challenge for Joplin as well as the university to not let that transpire.
One last point in regard to the recent Globe editorial suggesting that MSIPC be “broadened” to include a wider variety of music.
Holding other similar events with other forms of music sounds great. But let MSIPC stand alone in the classical arena without dilution.
That would be like including a horse-pulling contest in the Kentucky Derby.
Anson Burlingame
Joplin