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Composers BureauHalide K. SmithBiography
With her love of music, she registered at the University of Denver as a “music minor” hoping to take some classes in music. At age 25, she moved to New York and was lucky to find a very serious master teacher in David Labovitz. He required all his advanced students to give an annual full-fledged recital. It included baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary music. Her repertoire expanded as she performed 5 programs and a 2 piano concert. For her solo concerts, 2 of the guests were the prestigious composers, Wallenford Reigger and Robert Starer. Moving back to Los Angeles in 1960, she studied with Johanna Graudan and was chosen to play in Rosalyn Tureck’s repertoire class. With performing Bach’s Overture in the French Manner, she relished the criticism and gained much insight from the Baroque expert, Ms. Tureck. She studied with Muriel Kerr, formerly from Julliard, at the University of Southern California who prepared her to perform a Mozart concerto with Lillian Steuber at the 2nd piano. In 1961, at a Music Teachers Assn. recital, Carol Rosenberger performed the same Overture in the French Manner by Bach, a piece that Mary Jane had performed. It was Ms. Rosenberger’s 1st performance after recovering from infantile paralysis. Because she had lost partial use of her arm, hand and fingers, her teacher, Webster Aiken, decided to try to stimulate her 2nd set of nerves in her hands/fingers through the “reflex stroke”. With patience and fortitude she worked and her technique had a clarity that was flawless. Mary Jane knew this was the technique that she was looking for. While attending the California State University of Los Angeles, she gave a performance at the music hall and was asked to suddenly accompany John Walz, cellist, (who just finished an European tour) when the accompanist became ill. Soon after this, the president of the music school asked her to be on the faculty. Not until she started studying in 1974 with Lyle “Spud “Murphy who originated the Equal Interval System, did she feel complete as a musician. EIS would enable her to compose with more confidence after becoming the 1st woman graduate in 1980. She published her first book of compositions in 1979 called MAGICAL MOVING MOMENTS. Completing her 2nd book, The final influence in piano technique came with Dorothy Weiss, a superb artist and pianist who in her younger years had won a competition given by Vladimir Horowitz. The combination of the “reflex stroke” and sensitive balance of the fingers/hands/arm, the latter being Mrs. Weiss’s expertise, was the final revelation to spur Mary Jane on to new heights in her playing. Beyond this, Mrs. Weiss helped her think of the piano as an orchestral instrument when composing her new works based on EIS. Moving back to New York in 1986, she was given the task of teaching a group of children that were very bright and refused to play out of the books she bought at the music store. She began to compose by asking her students “on the spot” what happened of interest that day. If “Olympic Day” was the event, this title was given to the next piece she composed and the pace of their practicing doubled. It took her 16 years to develop her children's piano course which is titled Steps to Success and has over 250 songs. This method of teaching can develop them at a young age, built on a foundation of her “relaxation” approach. During this time, Mary Jane was also on staff as a private piano teacher at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York and at SUNY, (State University of New York) in Purchase for 3 summers as accompanist for the cello classes for Suzuki violin. Meanwhile from 2003 until 2007, she was in a position to have time to go back to composing advanced music based on EIS, a desire she longed to do after being away from it for several years. The total number of books she has completed are 13 with 43 piano solos. She also performed and recorded her works on 4 CDs. Currently she is teaching on a small scale but focusing more on training teachers. She continues to perform, primarily in Japan where her playing was so inspirational that she has been commissioned to write a group of songs. Contact InformationMary Jane Tashiro Further Information |
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Last updated
11/5/2007 |
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Born in Los Angeles, one of 9 children, Mary Jane started taking piano lessons at 8 years old. With the relocation of Japanese families to Poston, Arizona at age 11, she was asked to play hymns for the Junior Church. Inspired by the senior church pianist, she copied her grandiose way of playing the hymns. Through this experience, her improvisational skills developed. When the family moved to Denver, she joined an interracial church and composed simple songs for her Sunday School class. She formed her own young Rainbow singing group and wrote the arrangements. Further experience came by accompanying the high school chorus.