Over the next four months, pianist Stephen Beus will perform five hours of new music.
It all starts here when he guests with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's Masterworks series to perform Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto. It will be the first time he has ever performed the work publicly.
He's also working on new material for a two-hour chamber recital in April and a 45-minute concert with the 5 Browns, with whom he is doing a nearly three-week tour in February. Beus is sitting in for one of the Brown sisters - the 5 Browns are sibling pianists - who is taking a maternity leave.
He also has a full-time job teaching piano at Ohio's Miami University and a young family with two sons, ages 1 and 3.
During a phone interview last week to talk about his Tucson concert, Beus - pronounced "abuse" without the "a" - admitted his life at times is a juggling act.
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"I've always wanted to be married and have a family," said the 31-year-old pianist with boyish good looks and a sweet laugh that punctuated much of the conversation. "When I've been too intent on music, sort of exclusively (focused) on music, I don't play as well. When everything in life is balanced properly, everything is better - my family, my music. And I don't claim to have figured out the perfect balance yet. I'm still working on that. But I think the balance I have now is a good one. I'm happy with my life."
Beus is returning to Tucson for the first time since his 2006 TSO debut. He said he had a choice between Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, which he has played several times in concert, and the Saint-Saëns.
The challenge intrigued him: "I love learning new music," he explained, so he told TSO Music Director George Hanson that he wanted to do Saint-Saëns.
"This will be my first time performing it with orchestra, my first time performing it period, and I feel pretty lucky to get to play with Tucson in my first go-around with this piece," he said.
Just how does a world-class concert pianist prepare a new piece for an audience? Beus gave us a little insight:
First, he gets comfortable "with the fingering and the sections and how the piece fits together and how it fits under my fingers from a technical standpoint."
Next he sorts out the tempo, how the piece will unfold, which will ultimately influence his fingering.
Throughout he studies the score and commits it to memory. Finally, he fine-tunes his performance to make sure he is confident in every aspect.
Sounds like a mighty task, but for Beus, who has been performing in public since he was 9, the actual performance is where he feels most comfortable, especially when it is a work that he admires as much as the Saint-Saëns concerto.
"It's wonderful. I really like it. It's very dramatic, very theatrical," he said. "The music is so amazing. This is a masterful work that Saint-Saëns wrote and just to be able to immerse yourself in it is such a privilege."
If you go
• What: Tucson Symphony Orchestra 'Mozart & More.'
• Featuring: Guest pianist Stephen Beus.
• When and where: 7:30 p.m. Friday at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte; 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
• Tickets: $49 to $59 for St. Andrew's concert through the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance, 797-3959; $41 to $51 for Catalina Foothills through tickets.tucsonsymphony.org
• Program:
Danielpour's "First Light."
Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2.
Mozart's Symphony No. 38 "Prague."
