Friday, February 20, 1998
Pumping ivory
MUSIC: Leon Bates applies concentration and stamina to his
careers
as both a pianist and a bodybuilder
By Sam Toussi
Daily Bruin Contributor
When someone talks to concert pianist Leon Bates, the question
invariably is asked: How much do you bench?
Now why would anyone want to embarrass a guy like that? Why
would anyone want to prove that all concert pianists are scrawny,
sickly little people who spent their entire childhood indoors?
So how much does he bench?
"Three-twenty," Bates says.
No, really, how much do you bench?
"Really, I bench three hundred and twenty pounds," Bates
chuckles.
Perhaps it would be fair to put Bates in a group of his own: a
concert pianist who is also a bodybuilder. This combination may
evoke memories of that ‘Saturday Night Live’ mock commercial: "It’s
a dessert topping. It’s a floor wax. No, wait, it’s both!" But to
Bates the different facets of his life are not as irreconcilable as
they first seem.
On Saturday and Monday, Bates will show UCLA how he manages to
play like Helfgott and look like the Hulk. On Saturday, he will
perform works by Romantic composers such as Chopin and
Rachmaninoff. Then, on Monday, he will give a demonstration on the
parallels between bodybuilding and piano playing.
Raised in Germantown, Penn., Bates divided his time between
playing sports with his friends and piano, violin and tuba lessons.
In high school, he spent hours pumping iron at a local gym, all
while playing in numerous concerts.
Today, Bates plays with prestigious groups such as the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. And while some may view Bates as
unconventional because he works out two hours a day, six days a
week, Bates just looks at his regimen as part of who he is.
"It was easy for me to come to bodybuilding because of my
participation in sports," Bates says. "I grew up in what you say
was a pretty average, middle-class upbringing and I grew up playing
like any other kid in the neighborhood. It was just coincidental
that I was also a music enthusiast."
Yet as Bates became more heavily involved with the piano and
weights, he began to see parallels between the two and even ways
each aspect of his life would benefit the other.
"Both (the piano and bodybuilding) require a great deal of
concentration and focus," Bates explains. "The bodybuilding helps
with my endurance. Most people don’t recognize how physically
demanding playing the piano can be, especially in the concert
setting. You get tired, you’re perspiring and that’s when the
conditioning really pays off because that’s the whole goal of the
conditioning."
This may all sound like a gimmick, but Bates insists that it is
not. And when he talks about the direct relationship between piano
and bodybuilding techniques, it’s hard not to see what he’s talking
about. Suddenly, the incongruity between the body and the soul
needed to play the piano disappears.
Critics cite his "power" most often because Bates looks
absolutely enormous in his concert tuxedo. Yet, every critic
marvels at the emotional depth that Bates is able to explore.
Alicia Anstead of the Bangor Daily News called his performance,
"skillful and honest, so elegant and warm." These types of reviews
are common for Bates and serve to break down the stereotype that
muscle guys are too dense to comprehend the alphabet, let alone the
complex Rachmaninoff chords.
But Bates doesn’t really care about breaking stereotypes. When
he is called "a prominent black pianist" Bates is less than
excited.
"I’m flattered," he says. "But to me it’s more important to be a
good pianist than to be a black pianist. It’s about the musical
experience for me."
Bates attempts to convey that musical experience in every
concert he does. Still, Bates has built a career on surprising
audiences and random people at the gym in the same breath.
MUSIC: Leon Bates will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. at Schoenberg
Hall. Tickets are $25, $10 with UCLA ID. He will hold a
demonstration Monday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the John Wooden
Center. For more information, call (310) 825-2101.
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
Leon Bates will perform at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on
Saturday.